Thank you for your reply,
I do understand everything you’ve said, I have seen you assist others in their cases as well and I want to thank you on behalf of everyone you’ve helped so far. With my case, I am looking to go to university and I think this may be a deciding factor of whether I am accepted or not, I will mention this in my letter that I will receive. Is it okay if I send you what I’ve prepared so far with my reply to the upcoming letter? Also is there a chance that the letter will just ask me to a pay a fine and that’s it. I highly doubt it but you know more than I do. I just pray I can get an out of court settlement although it’ll be detrimental to my financial situation i would rather do that than go thru court proceedings. My life will probably be ruined over such a stupid thing I’ve done, will never be able to look at my parents faces again but I deserve it.
An out of court settlement - not that that's likely if it's TfL, as people have said [
is it TfL? I'm not sure you ever answered that point...] - would indeed be detrimental to your financial situation, as you say. But you (and anyone else reading this in cases where a settlment is more likely) shouldn't be under the misapprehension that the hassle of a court case "does at least save money, despite the criminal record", if that's what you're implying; not so. Whatever a railway company asks for as a financial settlement, in most cases you'll end up paying even more if you go to court instead (because you'd still pay compensation to the company, as well as the court's fine and so on).
NB - I doubt your life will be ruined by this (despite your fears)! Many people do worse / more outrageously dishonest things than this when making a youthful misjudgement, but end up with a successful life later. Providing you always tell people about it, if ever in doubt (in a situation where a job or whatever
might need disclosure but you're not sure), a one-off ticketing offence is very unlikely to be career-ending; withholding information, in a situation where someone has an expectation that they'll be told, is usually a worse "crime" than a single ticket offence.
It's a pity you can't deal with your parents over this (though I understand - mine would have been the same); however if you get official correspondence from a court, or whatever, you might have trouble hiding it from them anyway ... unless you leave it as being via your aunt's address, but change it to your correct name. I take the point that's been made that if you just ignored it, it might never catch up with you. But I also understand your situation of not wanting to make things a hassle for your aunt. If she gets something sent to her address which she knows is actually for you, then yes, she can send it back saying it's a mistake and it's not her. But firstly that's kind of a lie if she does know what it's about (and you might not want to put her in that situation); and secondly the railway might pursue it and ask for some proof that she's who she says and/or what she looks like, in order for them to drop it and not issue a court case against a person at her address. Clearly she hasn't committed the offence, so she would presumably get out of it in the end, but there's at least a possibility that she'd be put to a lot of trouble in the meanwhile. And I understand that, morally, you feel you need to avoid that.
So if your aunt is being supportive, then when she gets your letter, you can (with the help of experts here, and of your aunt) craft a letter that tells them you gave a wrong name in a panic, so you're putting that right at the first opportunity, and asking them if they'd offer an out-of-court settlement. (Though if it's TfL, 99% they won't.) If there's any serious mitigation as to why they shouldn't prosecute (going to uni, or being short of money, and so on, won't cut it!) then that's when you try. But you need to be realistic about the fact that it'll probably end up in court.
If there was any
very unusual reason that might be grounds to avoid a prosecution, and a lawyer acting on your behalf might be able to argue the case better than you could, then there is the option of getting legal help; however, that just adds hundreds of pounds to what this'll cost you, and probably won't get a better result than you can get yourself (with the help of people here); so paying for a lawyer isn't usually recommended. (Except in a case where someone is prepared to spend any amount to pursue even a slight chance of avoiding court.)
By the way - the draft response you've put up above is in my opinion far too long; people dealing with your case will be dealing with a stack of them, and don't want to have to wade through stuff that makes no difference. But you can get more specific advice on this from people here when you've received their letter, so you know what you're responding to.
And lastly, the excuse that you "didn't pay a fare because your phone died" is really not something to mention in your letter, since it's nonsensical. Unless it's a very very rare station indeed, there would have been a ticket office and/or ticket machines where you could have bought a ticket.
No-one needs a phone to buy a railway ticket. In fact, you did it because you could because the barrier was open. Any slight chance of persuading them not to go to court relies on you showing them you've learnt your lesson and won't do it again; giving an "excuse" which
isn't an excuse doesn't demonstrate that you're now being honest with them.
Good luck anyway.
