Long time expired railcard

Hi,

I dont often use the train (usually 1 or twice a year).
Today however i was travelling with several friends, from southampton to reading station. I paid for all their tickets along with mine costing (£93.30 2xnormal adult tickets and 2x 16-25 rail cards return tickets) however upon arriving at reading station, an inspector pulled me to the side after struggling to get through the machine and asked me several questions.

Me in my stupidity did not realise that my rail card had expired on 29th september 2014. I would have paid for a normal ticket if i had realised it had expired.

The inspector took my details and questioned me, he wrote our conversation into a notebook and i signed and answered truthfully.

I have a few concerns after looking through these forums and seeing words like persecution,court or fines. This is my first time offence and i am here on a student visa.

I have a couple questions regarding my problems:
1. Was there anyway i could have just apologised to the inspector and paid for a normal ticket? Or paid a fine on the spot?
2. The inspector said "management" would get back to me, i assume it would be a letter?
3. In my panic i said my parents address in reading whereas i live in southampton, how long would the letter usually take to send (so i can come pick it up and avoid going to court)
4. Whats usually in the letter? Just a fine? Or will i be taken to court?
5. What would my best options be?

Thanks for your advice.

September 2014?! I would have imagined that anyone who only travels once or twice a year would check the validity of their Railcard before travel. It is unlikely to look innocent to the prosecutions team. A few days out is possibly a mistake, but 16 months out is, well, quite unbelievable.

The inspector could have applied discretion on the day, but it is the right course of action to report you given your circumstances.

Usually the course of action they will take is to ask you for your version of the events in the first letter but if they feel they have enough evidence they can go straight to prosecution. The address is fine as long as you can be contacted on it. Make sure you reply promptly to them so you may have to tell your parents what happened so they can keep an eye on the post.

If you receive the letter asking for your version of the events, they will decide whether to proceed with prosecution depending on your response.

Poom1995 said:

I have a couple questions regarding my problems:
1. Was there anyway i could have just apologised to the inspector and paid for a normal ticket? Or paid a fine on the spot?

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Technically it would have been possible, and had the railcard been just out of date (say a couple of days) they may have let you go back to the ticket office and renew it. However, with it being nearly a year and a half it looks less like a simple mistake and more like you were chancing your luck. I'm not surprised that the inspector decided to refer the case 'upstairs' for review.

Poom1995 said:

2. The inspector said "management" would get back to me, i assume it would be a letter?

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Normally, yes.

Poom1995 said:

3. In my panic i said my parents address in reading whereas i live in southampton, how long would the letter usually take to send (so i can come pick it up and avoid going to court)

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There isn't really a 'usually' about it - in a lot of cases it arrives in two to three weeks, but equally we've seen cases where it has taken anything up to six months.

Poom1995 said:

4. Whats usually in the letter? Just a fine? Or will i be taken to court?

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It depends on what the prosecutions team thinks of the case on initial review. Broadly speaking they will have four options:

1. Take no further action.
2. Offer to settle the matter for payment of the fare due (optionally with addition of an amount to cover their costs).
3. Invite you to provide more information to help them reach a decision (this can be by return post, or by interview in person).
4. Proceed directly to a prosecution.

Most likely it will be either option 2 or 3.

Poom1995 said:

5. What would my best options be?

Thanks for your advice.

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Wait for the TOC to contact you, and start putting aside some money.

Hi, just giving feedback.

My Letter had arrived yesterday.
Great Western Railway has given me the opportunity to settle this matter with a fine of £91 before 18/02/16, I will be paying this fine and will not be summoned to court.

Thank you everyone for the helpful answers and fast feedback i got from you all. If i have any problems in the future (i hope not), I'll definitely be back for some help.

Thanks for the great support!

Great to hear. Stay safe.

Poom1995 said:

Hi, just giving feedback.

My Letter had arrived yesterday.
Great Western Railway has given me the opportunity to settle this matter with a fine of £91 before 18/02/16, I will be paying this fine and will not be summoned to court.

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That's good to hear, glad to know you can put it behind you.

I know this is pedantic (and may annoy some forum members) but that's a settlement, not a fine. The reason I point this out is because a fine is imposed by the Court and would mean you've been found guilty of an offence. Since this was a settlement it hasn't involved the court - so if you're ever filling in a form you can quite honestly say that you haven't been convicted.

Looks like the OP has had a result there. £91 settlement is more than reasonable by the TOC in this instance.

najaB said:

I know this is pedantic (and may annoy some forum members) but that's a settlement, not a fine. The reason I point this out is because a fine is imposed by the Court and would mean you've been found guilty of an offence.

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This is an incredibly important distinction to make. Especially for those who have to declare past offences and end up unnecessarily declaring a settlement as an offence punished by a fine.