Fine/Prosecution advice

I got stopped by a revenue protection officer at Waterloo today for buying a short fare from vaxhaull to Waterloo (was travelling in from a further station) - I forgot to buy a ticket as usual and thought I could just get away with a short fare due to the horrendous ticket prices (Usually £15 one way but trainline was showing £30!!). I also stupidly said I got on at Basingstoke but that isn't true - lack of sleep and adrenaline makes you do silly ****.

He took my details (I gave correct ones) and then gave me a receipt that talks about prosecution so worried now. I'm assuming it's unlikely they will prosecute because that can't be cheap, and am happy to pay the fine - but wanted to know if anyone else has any experience/advise.

I asked him if I could just pay the full fare now in front of him and he said that's not possible, and that it's out of his hands whether I get prosecuted/fined or not.

Any ideas?

Hello. People will be along with good advice shortly, but one question to start thinking about: Have you done this before?
As part of the investigation they will most likely investigate your prior purchases on Trainline and may consider other suspicious purchases and contact you about them.

onlyspaceghost said:

I got stopped by a revenue protection officer at Waterloo today for buying a short fare from vaxhaull to Waterloo (was travelling in from a further station) - I forgot to buy a ticket as usual and thought I could just get away with a short fare due to the horrendous ticket prices (Usually £15 one way but trainline was showing £30!!). I also stupidly said I got on at Basingstoke but that isn't true - lack of sleep and adrenaline makes you do silly ****.

He took my details (I gave correct ones) and then gave me a receipt that talks about prosecution so worried now. I'm assuming it's unlikely they will prosecute because that can't be cheap, and am happy to pay the fine - but wanted to know if anyone else has any experience/advise.

I asked him if I could just pay the full fare now in front of him and he said that's not possible, and that it's out of his hands whether I get prosecuted/fined or not.

Any ideas?

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You'll receive a letter from SWR stating the alleged offence, they will probably also obtain a spreadsheet of your ticket purchase history from any online retailers to see whether you've done it before, if so they will calculate what they think you own them at the price of an Anytime Single for each journey.

You'll get a letter in due course, and that will be your opportunity to be cooperative and honest, which should, if you are lucky, mean they offer you an out of court settlement, as opposed to prosecuting you. Expect to pay the full fare you should have paid, along with their adminstrative costs of around £150.

And as @TheJester says, if you've done this "entry level" short faring before, expect them to find it, in which case, you may be looking at a much larger settlement offer, typically based on Anytime Single fares for each journey avoided.

RPI said:

You'll receive a letter from SWR stating the alleged offence, they will probably also obtain a spreadsheet of your ticket purchase history from any online retailers to see whether you've done it before, if so they will calculate what they think you own them at the price of an Anytime Single for each journey.

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I travel a lot especially around London so should I be worried about them accusing me of doing this in places? How would they get my travel history? I've only ever done it a handful of times. Only when I haven't been able to afford it (I know its doesnt really matter the reason because its still breaking the rules but I still feel the need to justify it)

They will inspect your Trainline purchases and ask you to comment on suspicious ones.
Trips where people would usually buy the ticket on Oyster/Contactless (e.g. Vauxhall to Waterloo) will be particularly suspicious.

onlyspaceghost said:

I travel a lot especially around London so should I be worried about them accusing me of doing this in places? How would they get my travel history? I've only ever done it a handful of times. Only when I haven't been able to afford it (I know its doesnt really matter the reason because its still breaking the rules but I still feel the need to justify it)

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If you booked online through a TOC, TfL or an online retailer they can request and be given full details of all your bookings. They can then analyse for suspicious bookings or patterns of bookings.

Also since I mistakenly told the revenue officer the wrong state station should I email them now or wait till they email me?

onlyspaceghost said:

Also since I mistakenly told the revenue officer the wrong state station should I email them now or wait till they email me?

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Wait until you receive the letter. Jumping the gun with a response now is not a good idea as (a) it may not answers the questions they wish to put (b) any premature response may not be matched up with your "incident" file.

Letters can take anything from a couple of weeks to a few months to arrive. It depends on how busy they are, how big the back log is and if they decide to research your booking history which will require responses from third parties.

onlyspaceghost said:

Also since I mistakenly told the revenue officer the wrong state station should I email them now or wait till they email me?

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I presume you mean the station you boarded? I'd wait until they contact you.

"Travel around London" would usually be by contactless or Oyster. You can expect some very close interest in inbound tickets purchased from stations such as Vauxhall, and indeed any ticket where their records show that it should have been scanned at entry and wasn't.

There will probably be an assumption that your address gives a clue as to where travel originates from, particularly in the morning where short faring is suspected. So if you have done lots of different journeys, it may be worth going through your Trainline account now to identify which are genuine, which are short fares, and for the latter, where your journey originated. Most cases of short faring we see involve one repeated journey, typically the daily commute, which is of course easier for the investigators to identify and assess the appropriate amount to ask for.

It's worth noting that if you are travelling longer distances (and I assume that your journey originated from further afield than Basingstoke) then Anytime Single fares can quickly add up to a considerable sum. So if there are multiple journeys, their offer of a settlement could run into hundreds of pounds. If so, then you will need to have funds available to settle it within 14 days, else you will be taken to court. This is another reason why it's a good idea now to go through your account and work out which journeys are likely to be queried.

onlyspaceghost said:

Also since I mistakenly told the revenue officer the wrong state station should I email them now or wait till they email me?

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Wait until you hear from them. They'll probably guess anyway from the home address you gave them.

Have a look at some other cases with SWR to see how they approach things and the general advice given to people.

Also you should start making your own records of fares evaded so you know how much they are likely to discover and what they will expect you to pay if they agree to settle out of court rather than prosecute you.

If you want to know accurate fare prices you should use the brfares.com website.

Welcome to the forum!

To add to what other have said South Western Railway will write to you about this incident. The letter will typically take a few weeks to arrive although it shouldn't take longer than six months. The letter will say that they have received a report, are considering prosecuting you and asking for your version of events before deciding how to proceed. It is important that you engage with and reply to this letter. It will use wuite threatening language. You might want to include the following in your reply:

- That you are sorry for what has happened
- What you have learned from the incident
- That you are keen to settle the matter without the need for court action
- Offer to pay the outstanding fare and the train company's administrative costs in dealing with the matter

SWR are usually prepared to offer an administrative settlement (commonly known as an out of court settlement) to people who engage with the process and who haven't come to their attention before. There is no guarantee of this and SWR within their rights to prosecute you in the magistrates court should they decide to do so. Don't think they won't bother to prosecute because of the percieved low value and cost of prosecuting - if you're convicted you have to pay the prosecution costs!

An aggravating factor in your case is that you have done this before. SWR will be able to search your online ticketing purchase history and if this shows frequent purchases of Vauxhall to Waterloo tickets then they will likely ask you about this. The might even invite you to attend a formal interview to help establish the facts.

If you are offered an out of court settlement expect to have to pay the cost of the fares avoided at full Anytime rate with no discount given for the tickets you did purchase. You will also need to pay an admin fee to reflect the cost of SWR's investigation - expect this to be at least £150. An out of court settlement might appear to be a fine, but it isn't and you won't have a criminal record as a result of accepting one.

Feel free to post a copy of the letter once it arrives (with personal details redacted) along with your draft reply in this thread and forum members will be happy to proof read it for you.