Caught by Chiltern Railway fraud team for an invalid ticket

[AV28]

Hi All, recently I’ve been caught by Chiltern Railway fraud team for an invalid ticket.

Firstly I’m really worried - I’m aware they’ll do a full investigation into my Trainline transactions although I do use other accounts like Trainpal & physical tickets quite often.

I did not do an interview when getting caught due to the busyness of the train but left them with my details.

This was for a Marylebone journey & appreciate that although it’s a waiting game before receiving my letter is there anything I can do before hand to reduce the effects?

Any answers are appreciated

 

[12LDA28C]

Hi All, recently I’ve been caught by Chiltern Railway fraud team for an invalid ticket.

Firstly I’m really worried - I’m aware they’ll do a full investigation into my Trainline transactions although I do use other accounts like Trainpal & physical tickets quite often.

I did not do an interview when getting caught due to the busyness of the train but left them with my details.

This was for a Marylebone journey & appreciate that although it’s a waiting game before receiving my letter is there anything I can do before hand to reduce the effects?

Any answers are appreciated

Welcome to the forum.

You would need to provide rather more specific information to receive any meaningful help, such as what journey did you make and when, what ticket was actually held and why it was invalid. Also, why you are really worried about an investigation into your Trainline transactions - what are they likely to discover?

There are plenty of knowledgeable people on the forum who will no doubt give good advice once you provide more details

 

[AV28]

Typically my travel will consist between Marylebone & Leamington Spa/Warwick

I brought I ticket on the train after getting through the barriers with another physical ticket brought to a much closer location then with another ticket purchased on Trainline when seeing the ticket inspector

I travel into London from time to time since November & often buy the full ticket for travel in, no problem but sometimes from the nearest station Haddenham

Welcome to the forum.

You would need to provide rather more specific information to receive any meaningful help, such as what journey did you make and when, what ticket was actually held and why it was invalid. Also, why you are really worried about an investigation into your Trainline transactions - what are they likely to discover?

There are plenty of knowledgeable people on the forum who will no doubt give good advice once you provide more details

Typically my travel will consist between Marylebone & Leamington Spa/Warwick

I brought I ticket on the train after getting through the barriers with another physical ticket brought to a much closer location then with another ticket purchased on Trainline when seeing the ticket inspector

Typical I travel into London from time to time since November & often buy the full ticket for travel in, no problem but sometimes from the nearest station Haddenham

 

[ikcdab]

You really do need to wait for the letter. It will list out what exactly they are accusing you of and you should then respond to those charges only.
However you have clearly been donutting and that is a criminal offence. It is likely they will investigate and then charge you for all of the short fares.
Best thing you can do for now is to check your own records and see what they are likely to find. They will charge you the anytime single rate for all the invalid tickets and then add on approx £150 admin fee. So you can work out how much you might be liable for.
As you have admitted your guilt on here, if they offer you an out of court settlement that is similar or less than you have worked out, then you just need to pay it and move on. Make sure you don't do this again as if you are caught a second time, the consequences will be worse.
When you get the letter, come back here and people will advise on the best wording.

 

[AV28]

You really do need to wait for the letter. It will list out what exactly they are accusing you of and you should then respond to those charges only.
However you have clearly been donutting and that is a criminal offence. It is likely they will investigate and then charge you for all of the short fares.
Best thing you can do for now is to check your own records and see what they are likely to find. They will charge you the anytime single rate for all the invalid tickets and then add on approx £150 admin fee. So you can work out how much you might be liable for.
As you have admitted your guilt on here, if they offer you an out of court settlement that is similar or less than you have worked out, then you just need to pay it and move on. Make sure you don't do this again as if you are caught a second time, the consequences will be worse.
When you get the letter, come back here and people will advise on the best wording.

Really appreciate your response - this is one of the worst feelings I’ve had.

Course such a lesson for me to learn from.

 

[ikcdab]

They clearly cannot track what you have bought from a ticket office. But they might be able to tie up the other train apps via a common email address. The more they find, the worse it is, that is why you need to wait for the letter and see what it says.
As i said above, you might be able to guess roughly how much they might want as an out of court settlement as you know how many times you have avoided buying the correct tickets.

you should also note that tickets bought on the train are not valid and will result in penalty fare or prosecution. You must buy your ticket before travelling.

 

[Haywain]

They clearly cannot track what you have bought from a ticket office.

They may well be able to, but whether they are likely to is another matter.

 

[Deafdoggie]

They clearly cannot track what you have bought from a ticket office.

They clearly can. And certainly if payment is by card, very easily. However, as Haywain points out they are probably much less likely to.
Of course donutting is possible paying cash at a booking office window, but a ticket clerk is likely to become very suspicious of that ticket buying pattern.
But, back to the point in hand, for now just concern yourself with online purchases.

 

[John R]

Did they specifically say they were from the fraud team, as opposed to the normal inspectors and ticket checkers?

If so then it is likely that they were specifically looking out for you, and may already know rather more about your activities than would be the case with a normal check.

 

[ikcdab]

I am genuinely interested how this might happen, and not for nefarious reasons.
If I pay by cash, then there is no way to track my purchases. I am just an anonymous face at the window buying a ticket.
If I pay by a different card to my Trainline-linked card then again very difficult. How would the two be tied up... All you could do is to try and compare names and addresses from all card purchases ever made... With all the purchases made on all the different apps. Bearing in mind this is across different organisations then although not impossible, very difficult.
If I only ever use one card for everything then it's much easier, but again going across organisations makes it trickier.