£48 fine for 'Fare Evasion' - Advice?

yorkie2

I concur with the advice provided by Livingthedream to pay the full cost of the ticket that you would have bought, along with a letter explaining that your cards work fine (you could consider sending statements to back this up) and that you do not believe that you are liable to pay for any admin fees, and cannot see how those admin fees are either applicable or calculated. FGW may simply stop pursuing the case at that point, or they may continue to demand the admin fees, at which point I would ask for advice at either CAG or Railforums (Fares, Ticketing & Routeing section).

Stigy

Livingthedream wrote: »

Unlike a parking charge appeal system which is a joke and normally means that the Parking company has a fish well and truly hooked.

I agree regarding Parking Charges, but I assumed he meant Penalty ones as opposed to PPC ones, whereby the appeals process is the Mags Court? I don't know....Merry Christmas, I'm sad being online hehe.

Byelaw 18(1) would not apply to me, given 18(3):

You are quite correct, I do apologise, that'll teach me to read things more thoroughly :beer:

Without the full facts of the case, I can't really say what the chances of them winning in court with regards to the RRA 1889 would be, but to all intents and purposes, you have no ticket and no means with which to purchase one, so would I be inclined to risk it? Probably not. You would know what they intended to use before the date of course, but by that time I'm not sure they'd be overly eager to settle out of court with you.

Owain wrote:

Scotrail's charge in the same circumstances - retrospective payment for a fare following a report of Irregular Travel - is £10.

There are no grounds for any admin charge in the NCoC and repeated indications that a reasonable admin charge would not be more than £10.

I still feel there's confusion, as it's far from uncommon for TOCs to offer final warnings in this way, and lots do so.

Froggitt

Have you asked your banks what the reason for the DECLINE was? Its possible there was no signal and there was no request made to the bank for the money. If that is the case, its no different to offering a £50, but the conductor saying "Im sorry I have no change....let me have your details and we'll write to you requesting the money".

If they dont want to take your money (in a format they they have previously said they accept) when you offer it, they have no right to slap on a large admin fee later IMHO.

eddddy

Froggitt wrote: »

Have you asked your banks what the reason for the DECLINE was? ... .

I totally agree with Froggitt. Call your card issuers, tell them the date and time of the 'declines' and ask for the reasons. If they really have declined payment, they will have that information readily available.

I suspect that the card issuers may say that the request for payment did not reach them. In which case, it is likely that the problem was with the train company's equipment.

(I had a similar problem when a roadside windscreen repair man told me rather patronisingly that my bank had declined payment. I made him wait 10 minutes whilst I phoned the bank in front of him, and they confirmed that no request for payment had reached them.)