Given notice for prosecution by SWRail but still not received the letter after over 2 months

[Naivas111]

Hello all,

I was given a notice for prosecution on Feb 01 2024 by SWRail revenue officer (travelling without a railcard: I was using an armed forces one which is a physical card and I had forgotten it). I have been waiting for the letter to arrive but after just over 2 months, there is still no sign of it. I am sure that they took my address down correctly as they took it from my driving license. I am in the army and am about to be deployed overseas for 6 months. No one will be at home to receive the letter.

Is it usual to take longer than 2 months for the letter to arrive? More importantly, is there a way that I can inform SWRail that I am being deployed and therefore will not be able to receive the letter?

All help is much appreciated!

 

[Haywain]

SWR are quite busy at present and have up to 6 months to bring charges, so you could wait some time to receive a letter from them. Can you arrange for post to be redirected?

When you were given the notice were you not invited to send a copy of your railcard? You would not normally need to do more than that, unless there is more to this than you have said above.

 

[reb0118]

In cases such as these the onus is on you to contact the railway company with proof that you hold a railcard under the railcard amnesty scheme. Hopefully you have not missed the deadline.

Otherwise, they may treat the matter as if no railcard was held and escalate it - ultimately to court action.

In short, get proof that you actually held a valid railcard in pronto.