GA

[dabeztstuff]

Hi all

Any advice for this would be much appreciated. Letter attached.

I travelled to Stansted airport from Tottenham hale. I was in a rush and ended up not buying the correct ticket. I was trying to split the tickets as it was cheaper but realised i bought the wrong tickets when i arrived at the airport. I had one ticket from tottenham hale to northumberland park and one ticket from bishops stortford to stansted airport.

At the airport got stopped by an inspector and showed them the bishops stortford to stansted airport ticket. they could tell it hadn't been scanned in. I said they just opened the barriers which was trued (at tottenham hale). Asked my what bishops stortford station looked like which i obviously didnt know. I then ran away and bypassed the inspectors, but there was an inspector waiting for me at the airport gates.

Had to go back and they cautioned me. And i said no comment to everything.

Is this the end of it. Will they have my name on file ? Will they search all my travel history?

 

[methecooldude]

Is this the end of it. Will they have my name on file ? Will they search all my travel history?

If you have paid the settlement offered, that will be the end of it, but your details will remain on file in case you are caught without valid tickets again

 

[John R]

I'd suggest that you're quite lucky to get a reasonable offer of settlement given your actions at the airport, and would recommend that you pay it, to close the matter. But your name will be on their file (and thus to any other train company too), so if you are caught evading the correct fare again it's much more likely that they will prosecute you.

As for will they look at your travel history, they might, but it would be difficult for them to pursue any other cases of fare evasion they suspect, simply because there would be no evidence that it was you travelling. I suspect from the question that there are other cases, which is another reason why you have been lucky - they don't seem to have dug deeper, as is often the case.

 

[SuspectUsual]

I travelled to Stansted airport from Tottenham hale. I was in a rush and ended up not buying the correct ticket. I was trying to split the tickets as it was cheaper but realised i bought the wrong tickets when i arrived at the airport. I had one ticket from tottenham hale to northumberland park and one ticket from bishops stortford to stansted airport.

If you pay the settlement offer that *should* be the end of it, but GA could audit your purchase history. However, unless you work at the airport I guess it isn't a journey you make frequently so there's perhaps nothing more they could find.

One word of advice though. Looking at your statement above from the train company's perspective, I would be hugely, hugely surprised if what you've written is true. Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm trying to see it as their investigators - who see thousands of cases like this a year - would do.

Firstly, most people buying split tickets for a journey buy them in a single transaction * because that's how the websites work; they do the work for you and let you make one purchase. You've made two transactions, which is counter intuitive

Secondly, having just had a quick look at it, the best split seems to be at Harlow Town, whereas you've got tickets to Northumberland Park (coincidentally the cheapest ticket from Tottenham Hale to get you through the gates, and a station airport trains don't stop at) and from Bishops Stortford (the penultimate stop before the airport).

Put those two together and it stinks to high heaven of doughnutting.

If the train company do get back in touch, your best way forward is to tell the truth.




* unless part of the split is a season ticket or similar

 

[AlterEgo]

Hi all

Any advice for this would be much appreciated. Letter attached.

I travelled to Stansted airport from Tottenham hale. I was in a rush and ended up not buying the correct ticket. I was trying to split the tickets as it was cheaper but realised i bought the wrong tickets when i arrived at the airport. I had one ticket from tottenham hale to northumberland park and one ticket from bishops stortford to stansted airport.

At the airport got stopped by an inspector and showed them the bishops stortford to stansted airport ticket. they could tell it hadn't been scanned in. I said they just opened the barriers which was trued (at tottenham hale). Asked my what bishops stortford station looked like which i obviously didnt know. I then ran away and bypassed the inspectors, but there was an inspector waiting for me at the airport gates.

Had to go back and they cautioned me. And i said no comment to everything.

Is this the end of it. Will they have my name on file ? Will they search all my travel history?

They might, because what you did clearly amounts to doughnutting, intentionally. Obviously nobody is going to believe you bought those tickets in two separate transactions by mistake.

Are you worried they'll find more of this sort of offending?