Suddenly got terrifying legal letters re: train penalty fare!

mgdavid wrote: »

Hilarious; another princess with an attitude who thinks the world should revolve around them, and that rules are for other people.
Please keep us updated!

That's one view.

The other one is that some organisations and/or rogue employees are behaving unfairly.

Furthermore there are few organisations these days whose activities stand up to scrutiny 100%. In this case their is certainly a valid question about the £60 fee.

I think the OP should have a look at this forum

Quire a few cases here to contemplate.

Going to court depending upon the charges brought could end up with criminal record!

peachyprice wrote: »

No, read again. That's not what I said.

You bought a discounted ticket without knowing you had your railcard with you.

You either:
1. didn't bother to check you had it, which you must always do because you're not entitled to a discount without the card

or

2. Knew you didn't have it but took a chance that you wouldn't get stopped.

That is where intention comes into it.

No, that's crazy logic,thinking you had something in your pocket and getting it wrong does not make it intentional, it makes it a mistake.

Altarf wrote: »

In that case it is a bribe.

No different to offering £20 to the ticket inspector to look the other way.

You call it what you want if you like, but an out of court settlement is not a bribe.

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth wrote: »

I am of the opinion that the penalty fare should be twice the six month season ticket. OP travelled without a valid ticket. Just remember one dodger last year, a banker lost his job due to their evasion

I refer you to the Penalty Fare rules; it's twice the single ticket.

Glasseye wrote: »

Unless you guys can convince me otherwise very soon, I'll be resisting payment and making a campaign out of this which I intend to go national..

If you attempt to represent yourself in court, you are guaranteed to lose.


If you get proper legal representation from a solicitor who is greatly experienced in such matters and has success with getting people out of difficult situations (perhaps by using loopholes or examining if all the procedures have taken place correctly) you might have a chance. Of course, you will incur great costs in your quest, please do let us know the outcome and how much it cost you.

Welcome to the real world Glasseye. I can accept that you accidently left your railcard at home but I have some serious misgivings about how you've handled the aftermath and how you've handled yourself.

When I make a mistake, just like you have, there are only three people I can turn to for help: me, myself and I. I cannot give my mother's address because as soon as I say that it's xxxx care home they'd get suspicious. I am single (currently) so have no husband nor boyfriend to sort things out for me.

If this had been me, I would have put my hands up and paid the excess charge/penalty fare there and the and apologised for the trouble. This isn't because I'm a nice person but it is because fare evasion is a criminal offence. I am in my 50s now and over the years I have learnt that in cases such as this where you are in the wrong it is best to put your hand up to it because not doing so is worse.

I have no love for officialdom or any corporate entity that can [or thinks it can] impose a penalty or fine but it doesn't matter what the circumstances are in this case, you are clearly in the wrong. Whether you made a deliberate attempt to defraud the railway company (which is doubtful if, as you say, you have a railcard) or whether you honestly left your card at home, you are banged to rights I'm afraid.

As everyone else has said, you should pay the £53 as a full and final settlement and put it down to experience. You may be asked to pay the other £53.50 too. If so, you should pay that as well. If you go to court they will chuck the book at you. Not because you dodged a fare but because you didn't show any remorse for it, had you done so you would have paid the penalty fare as soon as you could after the offence. The fact that you're talking about making it a campaign is further evidence that you don't consider yourself to be in the wrong.

High Court Judges, Magistrates and Justices Of The Peace take three points into account: The degree of the offence(s), a timely guilty plea and the degree of remorse. In this case, assuming a first time offence, the degree of offence is low. it isn't the amount of the ticket it's the number of the offences and the pesistance of the offender in offending. If you had put your hands up and gone to the penalty fare counter with a sheepish smile and paid it then that's a timely guilty plea, In your case the level is very high as you still don't believe that you're in the wrong. This is why defendants entering a not guilty plea get heavier penalties on conviction. The fact that you are (or were) planning a campaign proves no remorse whatsoever which will also attract a more severe penalty.

If judges attach the same importance to the three points of justice as outlined above, you will be looking at £100 or so for the offence, £300 or so for not entering a guilty plea soon enough and another £330 for not having remorse. However, different judges apply the law differently so this is not by any means a prediction.