Hi all,
Just to quickly introduce my case, roughly a week ago, I was journeying from Plumstead to Gillingham to stay with my girlfriend for the night (through Thameslink I think). I had bought a weekly pass on my Oyster, which covers zones 1-6. Therefore, I was okay travelling from Plumstead all the way to Dartford.
However, on the train, I heard that Oysters were not valid past Dartford, as I would be travelling outside zone 6. I was aware of this, but it had completely slipped my mind to buy the ticket from Dartford to Gillingham as well. This is usually because I do not travel outside of zone 6. The only times I do so are when I am travelling with my girlfriend to Gillingham, and she normally sorts out buying the tickets and stuff, because I'm not great with technology.
As such, I attempted to buy a ticket on the train, by using the Trainline app, but remembered that I had just enough on my bank account for the £10 ticket from Dartford to Gillingham. However, as I was staying the night, I would also need to buy food and groceries as well. Therefore, I chose to buy the £3 ticket from Chatham to Gillingham so that I could have some money to buy some food that night.
With my horrible luck, I was caught by an inspector at Gillingham station, who scanned my ticket and told me that I had not used the ticket at Chatham and that the barriers there were closed. He took my name, address, etc. (I also explained my situation honestly to him) and told me that I should expect a £100 fine that would go down to £50 if paid early. I asked if my provided information would be used by any third parties and he explicitly told me NO.
Today, I've just received the attached letter in the post.
I know the right thing to do is to plead guilty, but I've also read online that settling out of court is very possible. I am a medicine student and this is a first time offence for me (except when I was 12 or something I bumped a bus once and got caught, but that was because I had lost my oyster). I honestly don't mind the fine, I'll pay whatever is asked of me. I just really don't want this to affect my criminal record/DBS checks as it is really important in medicine to keep that relatively clean.
I'm asking for advice on what I should do next to ensure that my record stays clean. I would like to settle out of court, but how do I go about doing that? If that's not possible, if I plead guilty, would turning up to court work for me or against me?
Please let me know and any advice is appreciated.
P.S. In addition, just for further context, the name my parents gave me at birth is a spelling mistake of a popular name. It's always been an insecurity of mine, and as of late, I've been trying to change my name use to the correct version of the name, as well as have it legally changed. When I gave my details to the inspector, I gave the name that would not be present on my driving license or passport (my new name), but it's only a one letter difference (and it's not the first letter) from my 'real name', and the address and everything was accurate. Would this be used against me?
Just to quickly introduce my case, roughly a week ago, I was journeying from Plumstead to Gillingham to stay with my girlfriend for the night (through Thameslink I think). I had bought a weekly pass on my Oyster, which covers zones 1-6. Therefore, I was okay travelling from Plumstead all the way to Dartford.
However, on the train, I heard that Oysters were not valid past Dartford, as I would be travelling outside zone 6. I was aware of this, but it had completely slipped my mind to buy the ticket from Dartford to Gillingham as well. This is usually because I do not travel outside of zone 6. The only times I do so are when I am travelling with my girlfriend to Gillingham, and she normally sorts out buying the tickets and stuff, because I'm not great with technology.
As such, I attempted to buy a ticket on the train, by using the Trainline app, but remembered that I had just enough on my bank account for the £10 ticket from Dartford to Gillingham. However, as I was staying the night, I would also need to buy food and groceries as well. Therefore, I chose to buy the £3 ticket from Chatham to Gillingham so that I could have some money to buy some food that night.
With my horrible luck, I was caught by an inspector at Gillingham station, who scanned my ticket and told me that I had not used the ticket at Chatham and that the barriers there were closed. He took my name, address, etc. (I also explained my situation honestly to him) and told me that I should expect a £100 fine that would go down to £50 if paid early. I asked if my provided information would be used by any third parties and he explicitly told me NO.
Today, I've just received the attached letter in the post.
I know the right thing to do is to plead guilty, but I've also read online that settling out of court is very possible. I am a medicine student and this is a first time offence for me (except when I was 12 or something I bumped a bus once and got caught, but that was because I had lost my oyster). I honestly don't mind the fine, I'll pay whatever is asked of me. I just really don't want this to affect my criminal record/DBS checks as it is really important in medicine to keep that relatively clean.
I'm asking for advice on what I should do next to ensure that my record stays clean. I would like to settle out of court, but how do I go about doing that? If that's not possible, if I plead guilty, would turning up to court work for me or against me?
Please let me know and any advice is appreciated.
P.S. In addition, just for further context, the name my parents gave me at birth is a spelling mistake of a popular name. It's always been an insecurity of mine, and as of late, I've been trying to change my name use to the correct version of the name, as well as have it legally changed. When I gave my details to the inspector, I gave the name that would not be present on my driving license or passport (my new name), but it's only a one letter difference (and it's not the first letter) from my 'real name', and the address and everything was accurate. Would this be used against me?
