Thanks for uploading.
Essentially Chiltern are giving you a choice:
1. Co-operate with them, tell them about other journeys where you haven't tapped in correctly and they will offer you an out of court settlement. You would have to pay them the cost of all the fares avoided at the full Anytime rate with no credit given for the tickets you did purchase and pay them an admin cost to reflect the cost of Chiltern dealing with your case. In return Chiltern will withdraw court proceedings.
2. Let the matter proceed to court where Chiltern would prosecute you for the single case where you were caught. You would almost certainly be found guilty and would have to pay a fine based on your income, a surcharge of 40% of the value of the fine, compensation for the fare avoided and a contribution towards Chiltern's court costs. If you choose this route you would have a criminal conviction which could cause some difficulties in other areas of life (although convictions under the Railway Byelaws don't normally show on Standard DBS checks).
Assuming you choose to co-operate Chiltern have said they want to interview you to establish the number of times you've travelled with an invalid ticket. You might be able to avoid the interview if you write a suitably worded letter where you tell them how many times this has happened. I don't know if this is something you'd be able to research but if you post a draft copy of your reply in this thread forum members will be happy to proof read it for you.
Many thanks, afraid I really would be unable to calculate the number of times this has happened. Although I used the train relatively regularly I am often working from home, travelling etc. I have written a draft e-mail, but difficult to know how much detail to cover.
Dear Sir/ Madam,
I am writing to you with refence to the above case (XXXX), and would welcome the opportunity to discuss the matter further, and avoid potential prosecution.
Clearly I have made mistakes in my understanding of how I should be correctly using my flexi ticket (you will have seen I have since corrected this), I'm very apologetic for this, and feel stupid for not understanding the situation earlier and indeed the frustration and additional problems this has caused you.
I appreciate that there may be additional payments required for Chiltern railways for missed fares, along with your administrative costs and hope this matter can be settled amicably.
In terms of my behaviour, and helping your investigation I should advise you on my travel behaviour:
- I now normally travel on my route Tue/ Wed/ Thu
- This is not 100% of the time, however, I often travel with work for a week or so, or have calls at unsociable hours/ child care commitments meaning I would work from home, if I know I will not be in for extended periods (due to travel/ holidays etc) I will normally purchase physical train tickets instead.
- I will normally take the train from XXX to XXX, depending on the terminus where I would tap in.
.
In mitigation of my transgressions:
- On my route, the train guard joins at XXXX (my station), and will pass through the carriage checking all travelers tickets and rail cards, including flexi-cards checked with an app on their phone. This happens 90% of the days, and unbelievably, it was never pointed out to me that there was an issue with my flexi-card. Had it been pointed out I would have changed my behaviour immediately. Whilst this in no way excuses my behaviour I hope you can understand why I was unaware of the issue.
- I purchased my flexi-card and as a matter of course tapped in at the terminus station, thus paying for a full return journey for the day.
- Although my work pattern is relatively flexible I used my full flexi card fully 99% the time, if I knew I would not need the full 8 cards (i.e if travelling or round Christmas, holidays or extensive travel) I would purchase physical rail tickets,
