Potential fine?

[bigcat56]

On the 30th of December I was stopped at exeter central for having a child’s ticket (I’m 17 and it just saved me money). I stupidly just lied about my age and gave them my dads address which I don’t have any access to if the send a letter. They didn’t mention a penalty fare and the man gave me a new paper ticket not making me pay any extra for it.
I asked in a Reddit thread and was told that because it was not verbally issued that I will not receive a penalty fare, but another said that I could receive it through the post.
I have sent an email to [email protected] to ask what to do.
I know I am in the wrong and if I do have a penalty fare, I want to pay it asap, but I don’t know how or how to find out.
I know I am an idiot for this and it goes without saying I’ll never buy the wrong ticket again.
Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Elecman]

You want get a Penaltt fare as those have to be issued there and then and can’t be issued by post.
The train company employee will send a report of your ticketing irregularity go the Train Vompany Revenie protection office for further investigation( what tickets is you have a paper card one or an online ticket ? )
The train company will write a letter to the address you gave asking for your side of the event before deciding what to do.
If you cooperate with the train company apologise for your action and convince them you won’t repeat buying child tickets they are most likely to offer you an Outbof Court settlement of the correct anytime ticket price for the journey you made ( and any others that they discover ) plus an administrative charge of £150-£175. This is not a fine but an offer to settle without resorting to prosecuting you in court. Note any value you paid for your child ticket won’t be taken into consideration

 

[bigcat56]

You want get a Penaltt fare as those have to be issued there and then and can’t be issued by post.
The train company employee will send a report of your ticketing irregularity go the Train Vompany Revenie protection office for further investigation( what tickets is you have a paper card one or an online ticket ? )
The train company will write a letter to the address you gave asking for your side of the event before deciding what to do.
If you cooperate with the train company apologise for your action and convince them you won’t repeat buying child tickets they are most likely to offer you an Outbof Court settlement of the correct anytime ticket price for the journey you made ( and any others that they discover ) plus an administrative charge of £150-£175. This is not a fine but an offer to settle without resorting to prosecuting you in court. Note any value you paid for your child ticket won’t be taken into consideration

Is there any way I can contact them directly rather than through the post?

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Is there any way I can contact them directly rather than through the post?

On the 30th of December I was stopped (...)
I have sent an email to [email protected] to ask what to do.

For the moment - perhaps until next Monday - don't worry about making further contact with the railway: you were stopped last Monday (two days ago) and today is a bank holiday. There's a fair chance that nobody has yet looked at your email, so give them a little time to read it and reply to you.

 

[RailsNetwork]

What's happened is a member of GWR's revenue protection team has interviewed you under caution (or a non-revenue employee has passed your details on) in order to determine whether or not it's a regular occurrence. Your details will be sent to their prosecutions team where they'll check your purchase history across ticket retailers. In terms of the "free" paper ticket they gave you, that's just a duty of care to get you to/from where you need to be.

As the others have said, best to leave it a bit for them to have a chance to get back to you, then you can seek to settle outside of court. You can expect to pay the undiscounted anytime single for every journey made on an invalid (child) ticket plus their admin fees of about £150.

 

[John R]

Your details will be sent to their prosecutions team where they'll check your purchase history across ticket retailers.

This is an important point to note. If your ticketing history shows that you have been in the habit of buying child tickets then, whilst it may not preclude you being offered an out of court settlement, it will certainly raise the cost of any such settlement, as every such instance will be included in their assessment of the cost.

Whilst different companies have different policies regarding how much to charge, typically where there has been a clear intent to defraud the railway of the correct fare a stricter approach is taken, which could well be up to the full Anytime Single fare for each separate journey made, with no allowance for the ticket you did purchase. This total, together with an admin fee of around £150 is what you might expect to be offered as a settlement, and which you'll be expected to pay within a very short time period, say 14 days.

 

[RPI]

What's happened is a member of GWR's revenue protection team has interviewed you under caution (or a non-revenue employee has passed your details on) in order to determine whether or not it's a regular occurrence. Your details will be sent to their prosecutions team where they'll check your purchase history across ticket retailers. In terms of the "free" paper ticket they gave you, that's just a duty of care to get you to/from where you need to be.

As the others have said, best to leave it a bit for them to have a chance to get back to you, then you can seek to settle outside of court. You can expect to pay the undiscounted anytime single for every journey made on an invalid (child) ticket plus their admin fees of about £150.

I hope not if they were 17! This More than likely is a Travel Irregularity Report and if so you'd normally receive a letter requesting payment of the avoided fare plus an admin fee. The admin fee will usually be less than that charged to people over 18 years of age.

 

[furlong]

I hope not if they were 17! This More than likely is a Travel Irregularity Report and if so you'd normally receive a letter requesting payment of the avoided fare plus an admin fee. The admin fee will usually be less than that charged to people over 18 years of age.

Indeed - the forum has a tendency to exaggerate the likely size of settlements. I'm sure people mean well, but when we've observed the policy of the train company concerned in action numerous times, I don't think it's good to present "worst case scenarios" in place of what we see normally happens.

I maintain that the strict position is that a settlement in lieu of a prosecution must not go beyond a payment that puts the company back into the financial position it would have been in had the alleged criminal activity not occurred. Some train companies naturally try to stretch that as far as they can, and averaging out certain costs might be reasonable, but I believe some of their administrative fees in these situations go beyond what can be justified. In my book that precludes any contribution to routine revenue protection activities (though it might be considered legitimate to charge for a one-off exercise to catch a specific unidentified individual). It will be interesting to see if the ORR's review considers this matter and whether there'll be an argument that some settlements will need to be reopened.

The OP should consider whether or not a 16-17 Saver https://www.16-17saver.co.uk/ might meet their future needs, as a legitimate way of paying half-fare.

 

[Elecman]

Hi, I hope you’re doing okay. Something very similar happened to me this morning, and I was wondering if you could kindly share any updates on the process. It would mean so much—thank you in advance.

Forum rules are that you start your own thread as no 2 cases are the same so advise can be tailored to your specific case