thank you for your advice and for your words. I am posting in this community just to seek an advice and possible options but some people think differently.
I have to agree with you that solicitor at this stage might wont help me but I have read some rare cases where they turned into final warnings.
I just wanted to avoid criminal conviction and I dont wanted to be in a situation where after some time I might flash back and questioned myself why I did not explore this last option.
Could you please help me to clarify few things:
1- if I plead guilty Fine and Victim charge how they will calculate? They will take average of my weekly/monthly earning? Let suppose I am earning £3000/month so how much they will chage?
2- If I use solicitor at this stage, he will probably plead not guilty to buy time?
3- If we plead not guilty so when trial will begin so will the court will stick to the matter as per the SJP? Or they can go further deep to investigate the previous usage of the card.
Thanks
Most people who use a solicitor for TfL cases, do so when they receive their initial "Verification letter" by post. This gives the solicitors time to make a suitable case for the client, before TfL have made their decision on whether to issue a warning, or process the case for prosecution. Usually you get 10 days from when TfL send the letter out, to when they expect their latest replies.
I'm not sure whether I've seen any cases where a solicitor has turned an SJPN case into that of a final warning
where TFL is concerned. With other ToC's (National Rail services) there have been cases where, even when SJP paperwork has been sent (usually due to no engagement with the initial letter) people have managed to negotiate out-of-court settlements with the ToCs and then contacted the courts to inform the court the case has been dropped by the ToC.
However, the key difference here is that ToC's (such as GTR/Thameslink, Chiltern, Northern, etc) prefer to settle out of court if they are happy that the offender will not re-offend again. TfL prefer to prosecute, even for relatively minor offences, and do not offer out-of-court settlements (where the person in question pays the fares due plus an admin cost to keep it out of court). When it comes to offences of a serious nature (which TfL class mis-use of high value passes, or Oyster cards, etc as a serious offence) then, generally speaking, the only way to stop it from reaching court is to use a solicitor, at point of receiving the first letter, and even then it is not guaranteed.
If you really don't want the matter escalating to court then you need to use a solicitor who specializes in rail fare evasion, however as mentioned there is not a 100% chance of success, and you don't want to pay solicitors' fees (circa £1000) on top of fines/court costs if the solicitor cannot keep it out of court.
As for your specific points...
1) If you are convicted in the courts, the fine and victim surcharge is usually taken as a percentage of your weekly income. From what I've read on here they tend to start at 50% of a weeks income, then go from there depending on factors. No one would know for certain what the amounts would be until/if the court issues the fine. This is why you have to declare your income to the courts, as if you don't, they assume a base figure, which may be more than what you can afford.
2) A solicitor would possibly plead not-guilty to buy time if the deadline is short. However, this would be more costly regarding the fine and surcharge if the solicitor could not keep the matter out of court, and a not-guilty plea would mean you'd have to attend court (rather than it being dealt with via the SJPN).
3) The court would use the evidence presented to them to determine whether the defendant (i.e. yourself) is guilty or not guilty of what you're being charged with. If TfL are using the Byelaws then they only need to prove the incident took place (which it did) to get a guilty verdict, rather than to prove intent, etc.
I'm sure others will be around to provide more complete advice if necessary.
