Train fine- could go to court

944020arjun

Hello
Was hoping someone would be able to give me some advice, it would be most appreciated.

I was travelling on a train from Peterborough to London King's Cross in July 2010 (eastcoast). I had lost my train ticket (honestly), and therefore was given an unpaid fare notice as I refused to pay what seemed at the time a massive fine (£80). I was about to leave the address that I was currently living in, and gave that address to the inspector.
I received no information about the fine thereon because I had left my address. However, yesterday I was sent a letter from Peterborough magistrates court to pay a fine of £300 or I could go to court to contest
the fine. (They had somehow obtained my new address).

My concerns primarily is, will this go on my record?
Thanks so much for any advice

Stigy

944020arjun wrote: »

Hello
Was hoping someone would be able to give me some advice, it would be most appreciated.

I was travelling on a train from Peterborough to London King's Cross in July 2010 (eastcoast). I had lost my train ticket (honestly), and therefore was given an unpaid fare notice as I refused to pay what seemed at the time a massive fine (£80). I was about to leave the address that I was currently living in, and gave that address to the inspector.
I received no information about the fine thereon because I had left my address. However, yesterday I was sent a letter from Peterborough magistrates court to pay a fine of £300 or I could go to court to contest
the fine. (They had somehow obtained my new address).

My concerns primarily is, will this go on my record?
Thanks so much for any advice

You've been found

Would have been much simpler to have paid the UFN (Not a fine, or even a Penalty Fare?). Maybe it was a PFN, and you're confused. Nonetheless, the principle is the same.

Oh well, what's done is done.

Basically the case was heard in your absence and you were found guilty. Now as it's a UFN I'd imagine the charge was under National Railway Byelaw 18(1) or 18(2). Bear in mind all unpaid UFNs and PFNs are cancelled and go to court as Byelaw prosecutions, which are criminal matters, heard by Magistrates, as opposed to the non-payment itself being heard as a civil case in the County Court.

You can make a Statutory Declaration to the court stating that you were unaware of the escallation due to moving home. This will then see the matter heard again. They will hear the case as it's your legal right, but it's quite an open/shut case really, as you blatently chose to ignore the TOC's goodwill gesture of the single fare, and and further correspondence. Now unless you moved house withing 10-days of issue of the UFN, you'll have a tough job convincing Mag that this was anything but your own fault.

The Byelaw conviction is non-recordable, so you wont show up as having a conviction on all but the most thorough of Vetting checks!

Livingthedream

944020arjun wrote: »

(They had somehow obtained my new address).

Oops, the courts normally are very good at tracking people down, especially after a judgement goes against them.

To be honest reading your post gave the impression that you tried every avenue to avoid paying the fare and your very lucky that you got prosecuted for the less serious (non criminal record) Byelaws offence and not the Railways Act 1889 which would have given you a criminal record.

I would normally advice to write to the Train Company involved to see if anything could be done to keep this out of the courts or if the UFN could be reduced in anyway but as the court has already placed a judgement against you the Train company won't be interested.

My advice if you wish to contest it, would be to follow Stigy's post, if you have got no defence then pay the £300.

You could try reposting on a specialist forum for this type of problem, but I don't think even they could help you with this one.

CAG Transport Forum

Inflatable_Armadillo

I use the East Coast main line very regularly, and have overheard many discussions between guards and punters over ticket and fare issues. To defend East Coast and the guards, they are always very reasonable with people over the issue of incorrect or missing tickets.

Most often the issue is people travelling on tickets that are not valid on that train. The guards always offer (in my experience) the punter two options, pay for the correct ticket if they wish to continue on that train or get off at the next stop and wait for the xxxx train, which their ticket is indeed valid on. I have also heard people who have lost their ticket and again, the offer is pay the fare or get off at the next stop. I have never seen anyone issued with a Penalty Fare notice, but if they don't have the means to pay, or refuse to pay, they will offer an Unpaid fare notice, which is just the cost of the ticket to be paid within a time limit. I have also heard guards say that if you have lost your ticket, if you get in touch with East Coast and can prove that you had paid for a ticket (more so with returns) that they often refund or revoke the UFN on appeal.

In the OP's case, you boarded a train without a valid ticket and because it was London to Peterborough it was possibly the first stop after London, so they had no choice but to issue you with a UFN if you would not or could not buy a valid ticket there and then.

So, basically you are guilty of fare avoidance and I think you have zero chance in court. You should have got straight onto East Coast and appealed the UFN, if you could prove you had bought a valid ticket and you had indeed just lost it, then they would probably have revoked the notice. As it is, you had a UFN, you failed to do anything about it and you gave them an address you knew you were leaving soon after.

They have given you chances to sort this out and you have tried to simply ignore a legitimate UFN... sorry mate, but you should pay up and learn the lesson.

944020arjun

Amazing advice, thanks for all the messages! I will pay the fine and not go to court.