GTR Notice of Intention to Prosecute

I’ve just received a Notice of Intention to Prosecute from GTR, and I’m really stressed about it. I was caught traveling with a discounted ticket that needed a 26-30 Railcard, which I don’t have. This happened because I’d recently bought a ticket for my sister on my Trainline account, and her railcard was still attached when I booked mine. I didn’t notice the mistake until I saw the inspector coming down the train.

I immediately bought a full-price ticket on my phone. When the inspector came to check, he scanned it and pointed out that I had purchased it just a few minutes earlier, then asked why. I explained that I had just noticed the mistake. He then asked if I had bought the ticket on Trainline and asked me to open the app. While I held the phone, he briefly scrolled through my booking history and saw a handful (maybe slightly more) of other tickets with the same discounted fare.

I’ve read other posts and noticed that some people advise not to mention previous tickets unless asked directly, but I’m still not sure what to do. I’m not sure whether to go into any detail about the situation with purchasing my sister’s tickets or to just leave it focusing on the fact that I’m really sorry and have realised my mistake.

I feel awful about this and just want to sort it out without going to court if possible. Here’s the draft response I’m planning to send. I’d really appreciate any feedback or advice on whether it sounds okay or if there’s a better way to word it.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing in response to the Notice of Intention to Prosecute dated 21 March 2025. I would like to sincerely apologise for travelling with a ticket that was not valid for my journey.

Before the ticket inspection, I noticed that the ticket I had purchased included a 26-30 Railcard discount that I did not possess. This happened because I’d recently bought a ticket for my sister on my Trainline account, and her railcard was still attached when I booked mine. Realising the mistake, I immediately purchased a full-price ticket, which I have attached for your reference.

I understand that it is my responsibility to ensure I hold a valid ticket before boarding the train, and I deeply regret any inconvenience caused. I am keen to resolve this matter without the need for court proceedings and am willing to cover any outstanding fare difference and administrative costs.

Thank you for your consideration, and I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,
Anthony

If anyone has been in a similar situation or has any tips on how to improve my response, I’d really appreciate your help. I’m genuinely worried about what might happen, and I just want to do the right thing to fix this.

Thanks so much in advance!

Hi, welcome to the forum. Could you show us GTR's letter please, with your name, address and their reference number redacted? Then the pros here will be able to start advising you.

notmyrealname said:

Hi, welcome to the forum. Could you show us GTR's letter please, with your name, address and their reference number? Then the pros here will be able to start advising you.

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I think you mean WITHOUT your name, address and reference number.

Thanks! Here is the letter attached.

I guess the obvious question which an investigator will wonder about is why you are regularly buying tickets for your sister, who is somebody in their late twenties. Unless they were purchased at the same time as you also bought a ticket for yourself for the same journey, that would seem an unusual thing to do, and make them doubt that you are telling the truth if you offer that up as the reason you didn't have a valid ticket.

At this stage GTR are only asking about the single incident referred to on page 3. There is another form of words that would be used if they were trawling your history. Furthermore GTR are normally good at offering out of court settlements to those who fully engage with their letters as written. So your reply in post 1 looks OK. I would, if you can, put something more in to reassure GTR that you won't repeat the incident (e.g. buying your own railcard? Making your sister pay her fares), plus I would show a bit more insight / remorse, without overdoing it. But it's probably fine. The advice in these matters is that you don't need to incriminate yourself or answer questions that GTR did not actually ask. But also bear in mind the smell test, since your sister is clearly old enough to buy her own tickets.

The only area where you would do so would be if it was in your best interests to own up to other mistakes now. That doesn't appear to be the case here but I'm always conscious of factors that people don't / won't put in their first post. So if you had a small number of incorrectly paid fares amounting to a relatively small sum of money, you may feel your best interest is served by saying so here, in order to clear the matter now, rather than leave it for some future digital trawl of your account. Bear in mind the railways have leverage on ypu at the moment due to the recent unresolved case, but lose that leverage after 6 months.

Because GTR only do submissions (at this stage) by post, it is very important to get some tracking on your letter to them and to retain proof of delivery.

Ok, that makes sense. My sister had been staying with us and was having issues with her Trainline app, so I bought a few tickets for her over that period. I’ve had to do the same for my wife on a number of occasions too.

Thank you very much for the feedback so far! I have amended as below:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing in response to the Notice of Intention to Prosecute dated 21st March 2025. I would like to sincerely apologise for travelling with a ticket that was not valid for my journey.

Before the ticket inspection, I noticed that the ticket I had purchased included a 26-30 Railcard discount that I did not possess. This occurred because I had previously bought a ticket for my sister on my Trainline account while she was staying with me and having issues with her app, and her railcard was still attached when I booked mine. Realising the mistake, I immediately purchased a full-price ticket, which I have attached for your reference.

I fully understand that it is my responsibility to ensure I hold a valid ticket before boarding the train, and I deeply regret any inconvenience caused. I have taken steps to ensure that this mistake will not happen again, including being extremely cautious when purchasing tickets for others and carefully checking my settings before booking any journeys.

I am keen to resolve this matter amicably and without the need for court proceedings. I will, of course, cover any outstanding fare difference and administrative costs to resolve this as soon as possible.

Thank you again for your consideration, and I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,
Anthony

Lemmy99uk, you're quite right, thank you. I've edited my post.

fho123 said:

Ok, that makes sense. My sister had been staying with us and was having issues with her Trainline app, so I bought a few tickets for her over that period. I’ve had to do the same for my wife on a number of occasions too.

Thank you very much for the feedback so far! I have amended as below:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing in response to the Notice of Intention to Prosecute dated 21st March 2025. I would like to sincerely apologise for travelling with a ticket that was not valid for my journey.

Before the ticket inspection, I noticed that the ticket I had purchased included a 26-30 Railcard discount that I did not possess. This occurred because I had previously bought a ticket for my sister on my Trainline account while she was staying with me and having issues with her app, and her railcard was still attached when I booked mine. Realising the mistake, I immediately purchased a full-price ticket, which I have attached for your reference.

I fully understand that it is my responsibility to ensure I hold a valid ticket before boarding the train, and I deeply regret any inconvenience caused. I have taken steps to ensure that this mistake will not happen again, including being extremely cautious when purchasing tickets for others and carefully checking my settings before booking any journeys.

I am keen to resolve this matter amicably and without the need for court proceedings. I will, of course, cover any outstanding fare difference and administrative costs to resolve this as soon as possible.

Thank you again for your consideration, and I look forward to your response.

Yours sincerely,
Anthony

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The above is probably fine, and it's probably not a sensible use of time to over analyse it. Plus this is supposed to be in your words, not mine. But!....
1) Yours faithfully to a Dear Sir/Madam (Yours sincerely to a named person).
2) The desire for an out of court settlement comes over as a little brash, but that may be just me. One similar form of words which tones this down a bit is:

"If possible, I would like to resolve this matter without court action and I am happy to settle the outstanding fare as well as any associated administrative costs as soon as possible".

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to share an update with you - I’ve received a letter offering an out of court settlement for a reasonable amount, which is a massive relief!

Thank you all so much for your help, it really made a massive difference. A particular shout out to Pushpit for your advice and support. I was so worried about the whole situation, and this forum helped make things so much easier and less stressful.

Thanks again!

Many thanks for coming back here, as I'm sure you have appreciated this sort of thread is helpful to other people who may be going through similar difficulties. This will surely reassure them while giving a pathway as to how to resolve the problem. Hopefully you never need to come back here, but there are some useful money saving ideas all over this site!