Caught using a child ticket

[Xx100]

Hi there, i need your help/ advice.

I was travelling about 5 stops and i was buing ticket on each end, but on the other end i was buying a child ticket. I have done it many times, i wanted to save money. I know this was so silly of me to do. I regret this big time, i couldnt sleep last night, i was up thinking all night. I'm praying that i'm not going to be prosecuted, thats the last thing i need right now. But this was my biggest mistake and lesson learned!
Never again this will be repeated.

I got stoppend yesterday morning. The ticket inspector scanned the QR code he could see is a child ticket, he ask for my details. And He cautioned me and read my rights, im awating for the letter.
Can you please advice me on what can happened. Im really stressed out and this is all i'm thinking about.
I rather pay the fees, the fare price and the penalty. But no prosecution,i have learned my lesson

Many thanks.

 

[AlterEgo]

Could you please let us know the following so members can help:

• We need to know all relevant facts in order to assist you, including, for example:
  • The stations where you started & finished your journey;
  • The stations where you changed trains (if applicable);
  • If you presented a ticket(s), the information stated under "Ticket type", "From", "To", "Route", and any other relevant details;
  • What happened in any encounter with railway staff;
  • The details of any paperwork with which you were issued.
• Be careful not to post anything incriminating or personally identifying
• We need to know what outcome(s) you would consider satisfactory

 

[Xx100]

I travelled from Burnham to Reading station, but i purchased the ticket from my station Burnham to the next station Taplow and i stayed on till Reading, on the train i purchased the ticked one stop before Reading this is when i bought a child ticket to leave the station. I scanned the QR code and left, but the station guy called me back and he asked for my ticket, i showed him i only had a screen shop from the trainline app, he asked for the full ticket I told him i only have this screen shot. At this point i was too nerves to even say anything.
So i told him someone send me the ticket, i didnt want him to see my app and the full ticket as it was a child ticket. And i purchased child tickets on the app before same way. I was in trouble already he know whats going on He also scanned my ticket and saw it hasnt been used or scanned at Twyford station. He asked me where i live so i give him all the details, i told him how sorry i m and i wanted to safe money hense i bought child, but he didnt want to hear what i had to say.
He said this could effect my criminal record and i may go to court. But i have to wait for them to write to me, i also didnt want to be late for work so i just ask him if is ok to leave now. He was fine with me leaving. This is bad i know,but i'm hoping is out of court settlement.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 20 May 2022 ==

Ah just adding to my post i have not been issued with any paper work from the station guy who stopped me. He was writting everything in his little not book.
And he also showed me his badge like police badge but this was there station one. So he cautioned me.

And also from my station i had an
adult return ticked ,but no one stopped me there. Is the Reading station only that they stopped me.

 

[gray1404]

You will receive a letter from GWR. This can take anything from a couple of weeks to up to 6 months. GWR have a bit of a backlog at the moment so it might take a bit longer. It is so important you keep an eye on your post.

You do need to respond to the letter promptly apologising for what happened, assuring them it will not happen again and offering to pay the fare you plus any costs incurred by the train company investigating this matter. Hopefully they will offer you an out of court settlement. The good news is GWR is one of the train companies that is more likely to settle for a first-time offence.

There is a possibility they may look at your purchase history to see if you have done this on previous occasions. The concern here is you committed a combination of purchasing child tickets and then only buying tickets for the beginning and end of your journey. The train companies view this as quite serious fare evasion. Anyway we can just wait until the letter arrives now.

When it does arrive feel free to post a copy on here with any personal details and reference numbers omitted. You can also post a draft copy of your reply that you propose sending to GWR and we can give you some feedback.

Although it is not guaranteed, provided you have not come up on their radar before I think there is a possibility of you reaching an out of court settlement and provided any investigations of your online purchase history do not reveal a pattern of behaviour like this.

Good luck!

 

[owidoe]

You don't need to respond to the letter promptly

*You do, surely?

 

[Xx100]

You will receive a letter from GWR. This can take anything from a couple of weeks to up to 6 months. Gwr have a bit of a backlog at the moment so it might take a bit longer. It is so important you keep an eye on your post.

You don't need to respond to the letter promptly apologising for what happens, assuring them it will not happen again and offering to pay the third you plus any costs incurred by the train company investigating this matter. Hopefully they will offer you an out of court settlement. The good news is GWR is one of the train companies that is more likely to settle for a first-time offence.

There is a possibility they may look at your purchase history to see if you have done this on previous occasions. The concern here there is you committed a combination of purchasing child tickets and then only buying tickets for the beginning and end of your journey. The train companies view this is quite serious fare evasion. Anyway we can just wait until the letter arrives now.

When it does arrived feel free to post a copy on here with any personal details and reference numbers omitted. And you can also post a draught copy of your reply that you propose sending to GWR and we can give you some feedback.

Although it is not guaranteed provided you have not come up on their radar before I think there is a possibility of you reaching an out of court settlement and provided any investigations on to your online purchase history do not reveal a pattern of behaviour like this.

Good luck!

Thank you for your reply,

I really hope we can settle this outside courts, and sure i have learned my lesson i wont do this ever again.

 

[gray1404]

*You do, surely?

Thanks, typo, corrected.

Ironically I got "called back" at Reading once as well. However my ticket was 100% valid and the staff were making time restrictions up so I just kept walking.

 

[jumble]

Hi there, i need your help/ advice.

I was travelling about 5 stops and i was buing ticket on each end, but on the other end i was buying a child ticket. I have done it many times, i wanted to save money. I know this was so silly of me to do. I regret this big time, i couldnt sleep last night, i was up thinking all night. I'm praying that i'm not going to be prosecuted, thats the last thing i need right now. But this was my biggest mistake and lesson learned!
Never again this will be repeated.

I got stoppend yesterday morning. The ticket inspector scanned the QR code he could see is a child ticket, he ask for my details. And He cautioned me and read my rights, im awating for the letter.
Can you please advice me on what can happened. Im really stressed out and this is all i'm thinking about.
I rather pay the fees, the fare price and the penalty. But no prosecution,i have learned my lesson

Many thanks.

GWR Prosecutions policy is to do their best to avoid court and claim that by and large they do not prosecute if you have not come to their attention before so you may be lucky

We’ll do our best to settle out of court. Prosecution can have serious consequences on your personal and professional life. So, if you don’t pay your fare, we will do everything we can to avoid taking you to court. We’ll probably send you an offer to settle out of court – usually asking you to pay an amount to cover your fare and our costs.

Prosecution is normally a last resort and we look at every case individually. But there are times when we prosecute without trying to settle out of court first. This is usually when a customer has been reported to our Prosecutions department before. We never take our decision to prosecute lightly. We will only go ahead if there is a high chance of a conviction and it is in the best interests of justice.

https://www.gwr.com/~/media/gwr/pdfs/plan-journey/revenue-protection-policy/revenue-protection-policy.pdf?la=en

Pages 11 and 12

 

[Xx100]

GWR Prosecutions policy is to do their best to avoid court and claim that by and large they do not prosecute if you have not come to their attention before so you may be lucky

https://www.gwr.com/~/media/gwr/pdfs/plan-journey/revenue-protection-policy/revenue-protection-policy.pdf?la=en

Pages 11 and 12

Hi,
I hope this will be the case for me. This is the first time and for sure the last they stopped me for something like this.
I have learned my lesson.

 

[WesternLancer]

Hi,
I hope this will be the case for me. This is the first time and for sure the last they stopped me for something like this.
I have learned my lesson.

OK - I realise you know this - but it's not the first time as you say yourself you have avoided the fare many times in your first post. You mean it is the first time they have caught you.

But you need to prepare yourself that they will be very likely to look at your on line ticket purchase history (eg Trainline records) and see the pattern repeated. That does not mean they may not settle with you if you engage with them as suggested above, but you will need to be honest with them if they ask you about this / or accuse you of doing it more times.

Anyway - when you get the letter from them people here can help you with what to put in the reply, but in the mean time you could look at other threads and have a think about the sort of apology letter you will need to write asking if they are prepared to settle the matter without court cation.

If they gave you no paperwork after being spoken to are you confident that the inspector took a correct name and address for you? If not this can cause greater problems later if you do not get the letter from them - as it would eventually go to court automatically and you would have a guilty record without knowing it - which is a worse outcome for you.

 

[Xx100]

OK - I realise you know this - but it's not the first time as you say yourself you have avoided the fare many times in your first post. You mean it is the first time they have caught you.

But you need to prepare yourself that they will be very likely to look at your on line ticket purchase history (eg Trainline records) and see the pattern repeated. That does not mean they may not settle with you if you engage with them as suggested above, but you will need to be honest with them if they ask you about this / or accuse you of doing it more times.

Anyway - when you get the letter from them people here can help you with what to put in the reply, but in the mean time you could look at other threads and have a think about the sort of apology letter you will need to write asking if they are prepared to settle the matter without court cation.

If they gave you no paperwork after being spoken to are you confident that the inspector took a correct name and address for you? If not this can cause greater problems later if you do not get the letter from them - as it would eventually go to court automatically and you would have a guilty record without knowing it - which is a worse outcome for you.

Is the first time they caught me, i know this doesnt make it better or easier, as you said im sure they will look into the past purchases. I will be telling them the truth of course i dont intent to cover up my mistakes.

Im sure he had the correct detail he was looking the address up on his ipad or what ever he was using and i could see the correct name too.
I will look at some examples of apology letters on here, i hope i get the letter soon. This is so much stress want this to be over and done with.

Thank you for your reply.

 

[WesternLancer]

Is the first time they caught me, i know this doesnt make it better or easier, as you said im sure they will look into the past purchases. I will be telling them the truth of course i dont intent to cover up my mistakes.

Im sure he had the correct detail he was looking the address up on his ipad or what ever he was using and i could see the correct name too.
I will look at some examples of apology letters on here, i hope i get the letter soon. This is so much stress want this to be over and done with.

Thank you for your reply.

Thanks - that all sounds OK then. As I say, good luck with next steps.

 

[Xx100]

Thanks - that all sounds OK then. As I say, good luck with next steps.

Thank you

 

[jon0844]

I am sure the outcome of their investigation will lead to them offering an out of court settlement, but they most certainly will check the purchase history from Trainline and work out just how many times you've done this. The settlement will presumably be based on all of those journeys, plus admin on top.

 

[Xx100]

Is the part of the investigation i believe to check the previous purchases, but is my fault and i should have not done it on the first place, cant change it now. What ever the outcome is deserve it.

 

[jon0844]

When tickets have been purchased online, they will seek to view the history and Trainline I believe are very pro-active on this. In fact, I think they also alert TOCs to suspicious purchasing - like when people buy tickets and then refund them (presumably if the ticket wasn't checked) on more than an occasional basis.

 

[WesternLancer]

Is the part of the investigation i believe to check the previous purchases, but is my fault and i should have not done it on the first place, cant change it now. What ever the outcome is deserve it.

You might also want to carefully review your own purchase history and diary about occasions when you did things that were not the correct ticket purchase - just so you have a private record of the occasions. EG in case they accuse you of doing it say 100 times, when you know you have done it 50 times for example. You would then have the information you might need about that properly pre prepared. I assume you can go through bank statements and trainline purchases you have made to check this.

 

[Xx100]

You might also want to carefully review your own purchase history and diary about occasions when you did things that were not the correct ticket purchase - just so you have a private record of the occasions. EG in case they accuse you of doing it say 100 times, when you know you have done it 50 times for example. You would then have the information you might need about that properly pre prepared. I assume you can go through bank statements and trainline purchases you have made to check this.

Thats a good idea i will go through my trainline app and make notes. Just in case i have to go to court, do you think i should look for a solisitor before i receive the letter from them? Or wait for the letter to come.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Thats a good idea i will go through my trainline app and make notes. Just in case i have to go to court, do you think i should look for a solisitor before i receive the letter from them? Or wait for the letter to come.

If GWR agree to settle out of court, you probably won't need a solicitor. So by all means go and see what solicitors are out there - but you don't need to get in touch with them until you know what GWR have in mind. You'll probably find out what GWR want to do in their second letter - their first letter will probably ask for your side of the story, you will reply (try to be apologetic, brief and honest), and then GWR will send their second letter which may offer a settlement or tell you that they are taking you to court.

 

[WesternLancer]

Just in case i have to go to court, do you think i should look for a solisitor before i receive the letter from them? Or wait for the letter to come.

I agree with @Fawkes Cat 's helpful advice on that question.

 

[Xx100]

If GWR agree to settle out of court, you probably won't need a solicitor. So by all means go and see what solicitors are out there - but you don't need to get in touch with them until you know what GWR have in mind. You'll probably find out what GWR want to do in their second letter - their first letter will probably ask for your side of the story, you will reply (try to be apologetic, brief and honest), and then GWR will send their second letter which may offer a settlement or tell you that they are taking you to court.

@Fawkes Cat Thank you for your advice. Best for me to do is wait for them to reply for now.