Good afternoon,
I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the amazing weather we finally have!
I am in need of some advice...
I work in London so I need to commute in via rail. I am also ex military, so I am entitled to a veterans railcard that I have had for the last few years now.
In January I purchased a ticket costing me £52ish instead of the regular price of £70ish. To my horror, when I got to London, the ticket officer checked my railcard which was out of date! A genuine and honest mistake on my part. I genuinely did not know that my railcard was out of date which I explained and I updated the railcard there and then.
The officer proceeded to take my information not telling me what the punishment would be, I thought perhaps a warning or maybe to pay the difference in the fare.
I then received a Penalty Notice of £40 which I found to be unfair for a honest mistake considering the letter stated "intent of fare avoidance" when I had absolutely no intent on doing so!
I proceeded to appeal my penalty which got rejected, where I then proceeded to contact my local MP who told me that he would be contacting the Chief Executive of SWR.
Two months went on and I had no correspondence from anyone, where I thought that perhaps they had looked over my penalty and that the letter from the MP may have persuaded them otherwise. However, I have just received in the post a court Summons to magistrates court stating that I have Prosecution costs of £160! Upon doing a bit of researching, if I am found guilty, I will not only have to pay this fine, but I will also receive a criminal record!
I know not to believe everything that Google provides which is why I am here asking for advice from anyone that knows the ins and outs of the law and what might come from this.
I feel that me appealing my case and waiting on responses has now made SWR take me to court which I feel is completely unfair!
In hindsight, I wish I just paid the original penalty, but my naivety to the law made me think otherwise!
My stomach is now churning and I'm not going to lie, am kind of worried about the responses that I will receive on this post!
Nonetheless, thank you for your time in reading and I look forward to hearing from you all in due course.
Kind regards,
I hope you are all doing well and enjoying the amazing weather we finally have!
I am in need of some advice...
I work in London so I need to commute in via rail. I am also ex military, so I am entitled to a veterans railcard that I have had for the last few years now.
In January I purchased a ticket costing me £52ish instead of the regular price of £70ish. To my horror, when I got to London, the ticket officer checked my railcard which was out of date! A genuine and honest mistake on my part. I genuinely did not know that my railcard was out of date which I explained and I updated the railcard there and then.
The officer proceeded to take my information not telling me what the punishment would be, I thought perhaps a warning or maybe to pay the difference in the fare.
I then received a Penalty Notice of £40 which I found to be unfair for a honest mistake considering the letter stated "intent of fare avoidance" when I had absolutely no intent on doing so!
I proceeded to appeal my penalty which got rejected, where I then proceeded to contact my local MP who told me that he would be contacting the Chief Executive of SWR.
Two months went on and I had no correspondence from anyone, where I thought that perhaps they had looked over my penalty and that the letter from the MP may have persuaded them otherwise. However, I have just received in the post a court Summons to magistrates court stating that I have Prosecution costs of £160! Upon doing a bit of researching, if I am found guilty, I will not only have to pay this fine, but I will also receive a criminal record!
I know not to believe everything that Google provides which is why I am here asking for advice from anyone that knows the ins and outs of the law and what might come from this.
I feel that me appealing my case and waiting on responses has now made SWR take me to court which I feel is completely unfair!
In hindsight, I wish I just paid the original penalty, but my naivety to the law made me think otherwise!
My stomach is now churning and I'm not going to lie, am kind of worried about the responses that I will receive on this post!
Nonetheless, thank you for your time in reading and I look forward to hearing from you all in due course.
Kind regards,