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It wasn’t me! Penalty fine

WesternLancer

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The rail ombudsman will definitely not deal with this I’m afraid. They don’t deal with anything involving that area - it’s outside their legal remit and their expertise. They also don’t deal in penalty fares even if they arise due to “bad admin” by someone filling it out wrongly etc.

The ombudsman exists as a place to take extant complaints after 40 days or deadlock; neither of these apply here.

The best recourse here is through the press and via legal means to overturn the conviction. A complaint may also be made about the prosecutor who made the error to their regulatory authority if one wishes.

I don’t know if the OP can claim damages or anything.
Yes, the Rail ombudsman likely not be of much help

But NEXUS themselves indicate Passenger Focus is a service passengers can use, and I am also talking about the Local Government Ombudsman as NEXUS is a local government body AIUI.

I always doubt the press is a good recourse actually., but it can sometimes work of course.

In the first instance all Ombudsman services require you to use the complaints process of the body concerned. After using the legal means to deal with the conviction I would suggest this is what the OP should do if they wish to pursue it further.
 
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pedr

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Yes, I wondered if this rail service was part of or responsible to a local government organisation like a passenger transport executive or combined authority, in which case the Local Government Ombudsman may be able to get involved, or the parent organisation could be contacted to respond to maladministration by an agency.

The University of Northumbria's Student Law Office might also be able to provide some advice on approaches to take, or refer to other sources of advice. It's set up to enable law students, including nearly-qualified postgraduates, to provide some advice to members of the public, I think.
 

WesternLancer

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Yes, I wondered if this rail service was part of or responsible to a local government organisation like a passenger transport executive or combined authority, in which case the Local Government Ombudsman may be able to get involved, or the parent organisation could be contacted to respond to maladministration by an agency.

The University of Northumbria's Student Law Office might also be able to provide some advice on approaches to take, or refer to other sources of advice. It's set up to enable law students, including nearly-qualified postgraduates, to provide some advice to members of the public, I think.
Yes, it's part of (accountable to) a Regional Combined Authority with a mayor, essentially part of the local government structure as I understand it

https://www.northeast-ca.gov.uk/about

The NEXUS website says they are accountable to this body.
 

andythebrave

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I’m worried they’ll have no record of me going to court & will say I didn’t turn up or something!
I well recall going to a police station to look through mug shots to find the officer didn't have the login to the laptop with the photos, he sent me back home.
A week later I received a letter from him saying that I had failed to attend the appointment.
Wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry.
 
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newcastle
You’ll not believe this but it’s nothin 2 do with the original penalty fine! It’s a new one! Happened in May last yr. can’t believe I’m havin 2 go through all this again! How many more are going to appear??
 

Pushpit

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You’ll not believe this but it’s nothin 2 do with the original penalty fine! It’s a new one! Happened in May last yr. can’t believe I’m havin 2 go through all this again! How many more are going to appear??
Amazing. Well not actually, see my post 8 - you have someone doing this repeatedly and using an address no longer associated with you, and Nexus staff just take down what they are told by the errant passenger. Who ever it is probably knows you in some form or other. If you do have the solicitor's details then perhaps a direct contact with that person will allow them to see what is going on here.
 

WesternLancer

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You’ll not believe this but it’s nothin 2 do with the original penalty fine! It’s a new one! Happened in May last yr. can’t believe I’m havin 2 go through all this again! How many more are going to appear??
Might not sort it but contact local council where you lived and specifically check you have been removed from electoral register at previous addresses.
 

AlterEgo

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You’ll not believe this but it’s nothin 2 do with the original penalty fine! It’s a new one! Happened in May last yr. can’t believe I’m havin 2 go through all this again! How many more are going to appear??
Probably quite a few. We live in a society which does not have any ID requirement and the train company is required to take no steps to ensure the person in front of them is telling the truth.
 

enyoueffsea

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You’ll not believe this but it’s nothin 2 do with the original penalty fine! It’s a new one! Happened in May last yr. can’t believe I’m havin 2 go through all this again! How many more are going to appear??

The person who did it the first time and had no repercussions as it fell on you has clearly continued with their fare evasion.

This is likely someone who knows you, or at least knows you well enough to know your name and address very well.
 

Chrius56000

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Walsall
. . .If you have received further Court or other papers, check them most carefully to make sure that they ARE referring to a completely different time and date to the first incident, and if they are, you will unfortunately, have to begin the Statutory Declaration process over again I'm afraid!

. . .The other point to make I might suggest is, have you chatted generally in canteens, libraries, common–rooms, etc., etc., after you settled into your current residence between the last incident and this one?

. . .If you divulged your current address at any such gatherings, etc., (possibly accidentally or for some completely innocuous purpose like an informal friendly visit, e.g. assisting with homework or assignments) there could be a third completely different person involved in the loop who has also been "bunking it" and passed your address on!

. . .The best advice I can suggest, until this other person is caught and finally admits their true details, is to make sure you ALWAYS have your Google Timeline running and if you DO need to travel on NEXUS, buy a season ticket or multi–journey pass if funds run to it, and if possible, travel by bus with a network pass as much as you can and AVOID the Metro until they finally catch up with the miscreant!

. . .If you can get a pass in card or other physical form rather than relying on a phone app, so much the better!

. . .If you are able to get physical passes/tickets, KEEP ALL THE OLD ONES and renew them immediately they expire – you want this "cardboard trail" of evidence to say to Nexus "now look here!" – metaphorically speaking of course!

. . .If you have holiday periods, ask if you can get a printed calendar or timetable from your University Tutor, Student Union or Student Advisor – this would have proof for Nexus when you would (normally!) be expected to be in attendance at your University, and you want to be querying anything within term time dates you don't know about!
 
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MotCO

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Is it time to involve the police - identity theft? If so, it may give you greater protection against any future incidents.
 

Haywain

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Is it time to involve the police - identity theft? If so, it may give you greater protection against any future incidents.
I doubt the police will be interested as there is no financial loss to the OP, and little chance of finding the offender. Has any offence against the OP even been committed?
 

Puffing Devil

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You’ll not believe this but it’s nothin 2 do with the original penalty fine! It’s a new one! Happened in May last yr. can’t believe I’m havin 2 go through all this again! How many more are going to appear??

Unfortunately, it's another Statutory Declaration. Hopefully, you can work with Nexus on this by referencing the previous case, and they'd be prepared to drop the matter more easily.

Someone clearly has your details - most likely from a shared house or school/college.
 

MotCO

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I doubt the police will be interested as there is no financial loss to the OP, and little chance of finding the offender. Has any offence against the OP even been committed?
Even if the only offence committed is minor, would there not be a case reference which the OP could use as a defence in future claims?

Thinking about future incidents, should the OP advise Nexus of the 'identify theft' to ward off any future legal cases?
 

Puffing Devil

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Even if the only offence committed is minor, would there not be a case reference which the OP could use as a defence in future claims?

Thinking about future incidents, should the OP advise Nexus of the 'identify theft' to ward off any future legal cases?

The problem is that the OP will not receive any paperwork until it's gone to court. He could work with Nexus and ask them to trawl for any current or previous cases with his details to see what's in the pipeline and come to a resolution. Ideally, Nexus could put his details on a "watchlist", though I have no idea how their prosecution department works.
 

pedr

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It would probably be worth trying to convince Nexus to treat any future reports of someone giving this name and the old address sceptically, and at least making contact by email as well as letter. But it depends whether they have designed a process which can cope with this situation, or if they don’t have any way to interrupt the report leads to letter to the address given leads to prosecution pipeline. That wouldn’t be very satisfactory but they may not have recognised the risk of repeated false addresses.
 

WesternLancer

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It would probably be worth trying to convince Nexus to treat any future reports of someone giving this name and the old address sceptically, and at least making contact by email as well as letter. But it depends whether they have designed a process which can cope with this situation, or if they don’t have any way to interrupt the report leads to letter to the address given leads to prosecution pipeline. That wouldn’t be very satisfactory but they may not have recognised the risk of repeated false addresses.
Yet you would think it's a fairly obvious thing the person doing the fare dodging would keep doing as long as it seemed to work...

Which brings you back to complaining to Nexus and if they don't come up with a better solution going forwards it's a good Local Govt Ombudsman scope investigation (organisation failing to learn from its complaints to put in place procedures and learning from them)

Or get your MP to ask Nexus what they are doing about it creating safeguards to prevent them dragging innocent people repeatedly to court
 

Geswedey

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When I was an RPI if we did a name and address check for a PF we would be informed if there had been any other instances of PFs being issued to the name and address, surely NEXUS or their address checking agency could put an alert flag on said address.
 

MotCO

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When I was an RPI if we did a name and address check for a PF we would be informed if there had been any other instances of PFs being issued to the name and address, surely NEXUS or their address checking agency could put an alert flag on said address.
That could also lead to the miscreant being identified and brough to book.
 

WesternLancer

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Even if body cam on on every interaction (but does that have downsides) would make it way easier to exclude people like the op who could then provide copy of photo id before it got to court.
 

enyoueffsea

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Even if the only offence committed is minor, would there not be a case reference which the OP could use as a defence in future claims?

Thinking about future incidents, should the OP advise Nexus of the 'identify theft' to ward off any future legal cases?

Not sure what offence has been committed. Harassment maybe. But that would be a very loose guess.
 

KirkstallOne

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How galling, I don’t suppose you got the name of whoever you engaged with in the side room? (I doubt they were a solicitor as they aren’t typically involved in these sort of cases and you would hope they would not make such a hash of things).

Also is a statutory declaration the correct route here? OP clearly was aware of proceedings but he has not showed up due to a false promise that the charge would be withdrawn. The relevant language in the Magistrate’s Court Act is a bit vague.
 

furlong

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(An earlier post suggested the first case was resolved as agreed with the charge withdrawn but there was a second case which got further.)
 

WesternLancer

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How galling, I don’t suppose you got the name of whoever you engaged with in the side room? (I doubt they were a solicitor as they aren’t typically involved in these sort of cases and you would hope they would not make such a hash of things).

Also is a statutory declaration the correct route here? OP clearly was aware of proceedings but he has not showed up due to a false promise that the charge would be withdrawn. The relevant language in the Magistrate’s Court Act is a bit vague.
See post #95.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: ==

(An earlier post suggested the first case was resolved as agreed with the charge withdrawn but there was a second case which got further.)
Yes. Think that’s what is being said in post 95.
 

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