Notice of intention to prosecute from Kings Cross Station London

lupina

Good afternoon,
I received a Notice of intention to prosecute from Kings Cross Railway station. I purchased a regular ticket on line but wasn't able to print it, so when I arrived to St Pancras station I asked the officer to open the gate showing him my booking reference in order to print the ticket at the machine right in front of the gate. Despite providing evidence that I regularly purchased the ticket before my travel started, the Revenue Protection Inspector insisted to fill a report and now they are informing me about their intention to take the case to the Magistrates Court.
Anyone experienced a similar situation? Any suggestions on how to proceed? 
Many thanks.

MSE_James

It would help others to respond if you could give more details on why you weren't able to print the ticket before departure - eg ticket machine not working - as this will have a bearing on next steps.

Nasqueron

Also why did you not get the ticket emailed or on the app? Couldn't that have showed your code that they need to scan?

MSE_James

@Nasqueron  - not all tickets are available as e-tickets (with a barcode) for a variety of reasons - some can only be issued as paper tickets (with a magnetic strip) - notably cross-London journeys (as TfL barriers aren't equipped for barcode tickets) and anything involving Merseyside, but there are other quirks too. 

The passenger doesn't always have a choice of the format of ticket. There are multiple factors in play.

From what the OP says it sounds like they had a ToD ticket (ticket on departure). These must be collected from a ticket machine or office before travel. 

Andy_L

AIUI it is a "strict liability" offence. The offence is not having the ticket on you, intent to evade the fare is irrelevant. The only defense is that the ticket machine at the departure station wasn't working (assuming that's what you mean by "but wasn't able to print it" rather than that you couldn't print it out at home)

MilesT6060842

It's worth noting that you can arrange ToD to be picked up at any rail station that has a TVM, so you can collect it well in advance if you have a station nearby or on your regular travels, then you have it for your travel.  (Annoyingly most tube stations don't have rail ticket collection facility).

When you check out the ticket purchase, you have to nominate a station--the ticket is guaranteed to be available at the nominated station rapidly, but usually within 1-2 hours max you can then pick the ticket up from any rail station that has a TVM.

Nasqueron

MSE_James said:

@Nasqueron  - not all tickets are available as e-tickets (with a barcode) for a variety of reasons - some can only be issued as paper tickets (with a magnetic strip) - notably cross-London journeys (as TfL barriers aren't equipped for barcode tickets) and anything involving Merseyside, but there are other quirks too. 

The passenger doesn't always have a choice of the format of ticket. There are multiple factors in play.

From what the OP says it sounds like they had a ToD ticket (ticket on departure). These must be collected from a ticket machine or office before travel. 

This is obviously correct but my advice was aimed at OP to ask whether they had possible steps to prove they did have a ticket on the day - it is logically cheaper (and more MSE) to use a ticket on an app rather than killing trees to print paper, then using a contactless payment over the barriers as that is cheaper than the pre-bought tickets