mo ali student
New Member
Hi my 20-year son is a uni student, from Crewe, commuting to Wolverhampton. From September 2023, He admitted to us as his parents that he has been using child tickets (16-17 railcard) even when he was supposed to use 16-25 railcard more than estimated 15 times to get £11 discount off each ticket to get to uni as he thought it be ok, as train inspectors didn’t usually check his railcard when they scanned it in. and few rare times when they do check him Train Inspectors still let him travel and be nice to him therefore encouraging for him to do it again and again. Finally In November, he eventually got a fine from an inspector, took his id details, and my son got scared. The fine was £78.90 which he paid within 21 days; I think he tried appealing to get it cheaper we forgot what he said but he said he had financial struggles which was true but they declined so he payed the full fare. Since then he realised his mistake, so he has been travelling normally using the correct 16-25 railcard and this month, April he received 2 emails from Digital Fraud Team west midlands train (attached below). which is very concerning as theyre saying he committed fraud and have to pay £1000 fine or go 3 months jail with a criminal record.. We ignored the first letter on April 1st, which was a mistake and now the 2nd letter sounds even worse stating all the fares hes been getting discounted totalling 20 tickets worth £756.25. Any advice on what to do thanks and what shouldn’t we say, will they reply back in time Aswell? Thanks.