Intention to prosecute?

surreysaver

Surely if you were offered the opportunity to pay a penalty fare at the time (not a fine - only a court can make you pay a fine), then if you cannot pay at the time, they have to give you a certain amount of time to pay it, and as long as you do, they should not be intending to prosecute you?

matttye

DTDfanBoy wrote: »

The railway company will most probably be seeking prosecution under Railway Byelaw 18

18. Ticketless travel in non-compulsory ticket areas

(1) In any area not designated as a compulsory ticket area, no person shall enter
any train for the purpose of travelling on the railway unless he has with him a
valid ticket entitling him to travel.
(2) A person shall hand over his ticket for inspection and verification of validity
when asked to do so by an authorised person.

This is a strict liability offence, the OP didn't produce a ticket when asked, the fact that they purchased a ticket has no relevance.

The OP should contact the railway company concerned and attempt to settle the matter before it goes to court

If there were barriers then the OP would have been in a compulsory ticket area and bye law 18 applies to non compulsory areas.

shopbot

katejo wrote: »

If I found myself in a situation similar to this (where I knew that I had paid for my ticket and had either lost it or been pickpocketed or accidentally left a travelcard at home - just examples), I would be very tempted to give a false name and address. Do the inspectors ask for proof of address? I wouldn't have such proof with me.

With respect that's a really bad idea. The moment a person does that they are intentionally deceiving the train company.

Up to that point if they genuinely had paid for their fare they would would not have set out to cause loss to the Train Company. Any indication of dishonesty at that point would lead a reasonable person to believe they have something to hide. They could then expect any action to be taken to be much more severe.

A documentary I saw indicated that on the Tube at least your address details are verified on the spot.

SB

shopbot

London50 wrote: »

I can understand just how you must be feeling and I am sorry for the position you have found yourself in. As I said try phoning them and see what they say, I know it is a worrying time but they could look in a favorable way towards you but until you try you will not know.
Good luck and I hope things go your way.

Providing you have not previously been involved in any similar incidents I think the best thing to do is to write an extremely contrite letter to the Head of Customer Services. Apologising that you did not pay the penalty fare before receiving the court letter.

Explain that this is the first occurrence and include a cheque for the amount of the penalty. Be straightforward and keep it simple. Explain what the consequences are to your future job.

I would address it to Head of Customer Services and not Revenue Protection as Customer Service depts tend to look at things with people as 'Customers'. Revenue Protection will only deal with 'fare dodgers'. This may give you some latitude. Send it registered and also send a copy with a cover note to the return address on the last letter you received.

This is layman's advice but I think it is the best you can do at the moment.

SB

DTDfanBoy

matttye wrote: »

If there were barriers then the OP would have been in a compulsory ticket area and bye law 18 applies to non compulsory areas.

It takes more than just a barrier to create a compulsory ticket area, there are only a few in the whole country, I am not aware of any outside of London.

Royston Station is certainly not a CTA

katejo

shopbot wrote: »

With respect that's a really bad idea. The moment a person does that they are intentionally deceiving the train company.

Up to that point if they genuinely had paid for their fare they would would not have set out to cause loss to the Train Company. Any indication of dishonesty at that point would lead a reasonable person to believe they have something to hide. They could then expect any action to be taken to be much more severe.

A documentary I saw indicated that on the Tube at least your address details are verified on the spot.

SB

In that case I wouldn't. However I would resent being charged for lack of card if I had been mugged or similar. If they can check my address, they could also check my Oyster record and see that I had paid for a gold card and just didn't have it with me due to circumstances beyond my control. I DON'T support fare evasion but I do support treating people reasonably in unfortunate circumstances.