Hello, I have been caught by a train conductor with a discounted ticket. I used a network rail card which was expired. I use to work in the railway and decided after I left I could use that to get discounts with my ticket. I now got caught. They confiscated my network rail card. And now said that I am being sent to the fraud team and going to be done for fraudulent. I need advice and help on what's going to happen. I am having sleepless nights. Stressing about the consequences. I ask myself will I be going to jail? Or what's going to happen. Can someone help me?
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Help with a fraudulent ticket
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Tazi Hupefi
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You won't be going to jail, you would have needed to be organising a conspiracy of a much larger fraud against the railway for that to happen, or have previous convictions.
This will largely be resolved by significant amounts of money being exchanged in settlement, as long as TfL or BTP aren't involved, along with a sincere apology and acceptance of your offending.
Make a spreadsheet of everything you imagine you've avoided, and use the full single fare in each direction to work out a daily amount you'll have evaded, and then add on a few hundred in costs and admin fees. They'll put requests into the major retailers to work out your buying habits from the last few years.
I can only assume, however, that this Railcard must have expired long ago, or there is a suspicion it does not belong to you - otherwise it wouldn't have been reported or handled in this way. How long ago did it expire, days, weeks, months? Years?
Just to be absolutely clear, you're not talking about using your old staff travel discount card long after you had left... That is one scenario that could involve police and more serious action, and is at the far more severe end of the spectrum. If so, you should find a solicitor for this, specialising in criminal law.
This will largely be resolved by significant amounts of money being exchanged in settlement, as long as TfL or BTP aren't involved, along with a sincere apology and acceptance of your offending.
Make a spreadsheet of everything you imagine you've avoided, and use the full single fare in each direction to work out a daily amount you'll have evaded, and then add on a few hundred in costs and admin fees. They'll put requests into the major retailers to work out your buying habits from the last few years.
I can only assume, however, that this Railcard must have expired long ago, or there is a suspicion it does not belong to you - otherwise it wouldn't have been reported or handled in this way. How long ago did it expire, days, weeks, months? Years?
Just to be absolutely clear, you're not talking about using your old staff travel discount card long after you had left... That is one scenario that could involve police and more serious action, and is at the far more severe end of the spectrum. If so, you should find a solicitor for this, specialising in criminal law.
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Yes I was using my old staff travel discount card after I left. How worse?
Will I be sent to jail ??
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You will get a letter in a few weeks which may be the standard letter the train company sends out, asking for your version of events and threatening prosecution.
If you have been buying online they will have investigated to see if you have cheated before.
I assume you had a privilege travel card or similar from your employment. I don't recall a case like yours before, and don't think we can guess what line the train company will take.
If you were still a member of staff you would also be facing disciplinary action, which is why the previous reply mentions police involvement.
Don't understand your question, sorry.
I am just really stressed out. I fully regret what I did. I don't know what I was thinking. I just thought because I don't have a job I would just try get discounts. But that doesn't do me any good. I just don't know what to do. I ruined my life.
Haywain
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Sounds like it was a Network Rail issued RST Online Leisure Card.
I use to work in the railway. And I still had my network railcard with me when I left. I was using that to get discounts when I travelled.
Yes.
Which train company are you dealing with?
You won't go to jail, if you co-operate with the train company it is likely that they will offer you an out of court settlement. Normally a train company will research your online ticket purchasing history and expect you to repay the full cost of the tickets purchased at the full Anytime rate with no credit given for the invalid tickets you did purchase. In addition they also normally charge an admin fee, typically around £150.
How have you been purchasing your tickets? Online or from a ticket office?
You won't go to jail, if you co-operate with the train company it is likely that they will offer you an out of court settlement. Normally a train company will research your online ticket purchasing history and expect you to repay the full cost of the tickets purchased at the full Anytime rate with no credit given for the invalid tickets you did purchase. In addition they also normally charge an admin fee, typically around £150.
How have you been purchasing your tickets? Online or from a ticket office?
Southeastern (HS1). I purchased it online. On the trainline app.
galwhv69
Member
Apologies if I'm understanding this wrong, but you say that you were using your RST Online Leisure Card, but you can't buy tickets with that discount on trainline?
I'm a little bit confused. Staff (Priv) discounted tickets can only be purchased from ticket offices and through a bespoke staff rail ticketing website that the general public don't have access to. Were you using the staff ticketing website?
If you were purchasing tickets online then Southeastern will research your account and identify the tickets you purchased that you were not entitled to use. They will almost certainly want reimbursement for all of the tickets urchased since you left the rail industry at the full Anytime rate with no credit given for the invalid tickets you did purchase. Expect to have to pay an admin fee as well.
If you are offered a settlement you will need to be in a position to pay it in full within a few days of it being offered. Payment in installments isn't normally allowed.
Southeastern normally offer an out of court settlement to people who co-operate with them but we cannot guarantee this. They are entitled to prosecute you in the Magistrates Court if they want to.
If you were purchasing tickets online then Southeastern will research your account and identify the tickets you purchased that you were not entitled to use. They will almost certainly want reimbursement for all of the tickets urchased since you left the rail industry at the full Anytime rate with no credit given for the invalid tickets you did purchase. Expect to have to pay an admin fee as well.
If you are offered a settlement you will need to be in a position to pay it in full within a few days of it being offered. Payment in installments isn't normally allowed.
Southeastern normally offer an out of court settlement to people who co-operate with them but we cannot guarantee this. They are entitled to prosecute you in the Magistrates Court if they want to.
Fawkes Cat
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I wouldn't want to put words in your mouth, but does this mean that
- you bought tickets using the Trainline app, and
- marked the box for having a 'Network Railcard'?
If that's what's happened then the fact that you used to be entitled to a staff card doesn't matter, because the 'Network Railcard' isn't one issued by Network Rail or RST, but a card that members of the public can buy. It's not good to claim a discount that you're not entitled to, but this is not abuse of your (former) railway travel facilities but the same sort of fare dodging that a member of the general public could try.
And to some extent, that is good news. The railway will look to deal with it in the same way as they would deal with any member of the public - which is what @Hadders (among others) has explained higher up in this thread.
DeverseSam
Member
To save anyone else looking it up, I found that:
- Network Railcard 34% off
- RST Online Leisure Card 75% off
I was adding network railcard
I am prepared to pay whatever money at any cost. Straight away. I was pressing network railcard.
Yes. I marked network railcard.
Yes. That's correct.
To avoid confusion. Can you give us a sample journey including the time of travel, ticket type used, & the price you paid.
From that we can work out the level of discount obtained and, by implication, the discount authority used.
I suspect that your previous railway employment is a red herring in regard to this incident, but as misusing rail staff travel benefits is seen as a far worse offence (and rightly so), it would be helpful to confirm either way.
Thank you.
From that we can work out the level of discount obtained and, by implication, the discount authority used.
I suspect that your previous railway employment is a red herring in regard to this incident, but as misusing rail staff travel benefits is seen as a far worse offence (and rightly so), it would be helpful to confirm either way.
Thank you.
Haywain
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That’s not necessary as there is only one source of Priv discounted tickets online, and that gets closed off very quickly after leaving the industry.
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