Hi
@ConfusedNorth
Northern have little realistic chance of convicting you of a criminal offence for the unpaid penalty fare. The main reason for this is the Penalty Fares regulations, specifically S.11(3) of
The Railways (Penalty Fares) Regulations 2018 which states that because you have appealed, and Northern have not cancelled the Penalty Fare before the appeal decision was given, they are not allowed to prosecute you under S.5(3) of the
Regulation of Railways Act 1889 (intent to evade a fare), or any of the railway bye-laws (e.g. the strict liability offences of ensuring you have a valid ticket for your journey).
The proper route for Northern to pursue at this point is to attempt recovery of the unpaid Penalty Fare as a 'civil debt'. They have two routes for pursuing this, either via a complaint at the magistrates court (in which case the court may order you to pay the debt), or by obtaining a county court judgement (CCJ) at the county court.
However, it is unheard of in these forums for railway operators to pursue civil debts via either of those routes so it is unlikely they will do this.
What they will do, if my recent experience is their standard practice, is unlawfully attempt to launch a criminal prosecution via a Single Justice Procedure Notice for a Section 5(1) Regulation of Railways Act offence. This will allege that because you have still not paid the original fare for your journey you are guilty of the offence (you are not). They will probably send this shortly before the 6 month time limit for charging summary offences expires.
I believe your alleged offence occurred in early April, so this will likely not happen until late September. Before then they are likely to send you several letters threatening criminal prosecution and demanding payment of the original penalty fare plus an administrative fee.
You have several options here:
1) Pay the penalty fare, including any admin fee, as requested. This will close the matter removing any risk of having to attend criminal or civil court, or receiving either a CCJ or a criminal record.
2) If you are determined not to pay this, then do nothing, ignore any further letters demanding payment, and return to the forum if and when you receive a Single Justice Procedure Notice or a summons to the magistrates court.
If you go down this route, you may have to present your own defence in court to a criminal charge (or in representations to the prosecutor before the court date). The exact nature of this defence will be determined by the nature of the charge, at this point we have nothing but threatening letters. However, it is likely they will charge you with a S5.(1) offence in which case your defence will be quite simple - you gave your name and address on request and so cannot have committed the offence in question. If you are not confident or willing to present your defence in court, then I would not advise this option. You could get a solicitor to represent you, but given you indicated money was tight this is going to cost you more than option 1) with little chance of recovering your costs. To defend yourself properly you will need to read and understand the relevant sections of the
The Railways (Penalty Fares) Regulations 2018, and the
Regulation of Railways Act 1889.
Also please bear in mind that you may be found guilty regardless of how good your defence is. This would result in a criminal conviction for a recordable offence which will show on a standard DBS check for 6 years. You would also be ordered to pay several hundreds of pounds minimum. I would say this outcome is very unlikely, but it cannot be discounted entirely so it would be remiss not to emphasise this fact.
3) Engage with Northern's DPRU directly now and try to negotiate a settlement (using some of the arguments already outlined about how they are barred from prosecuting you, that your appeal should have been upheld, that you will be defending yourself if they try to take you to court etc.)
I would recommend either 1 or 2, pay up now or let Northern reveal their hand first.
Northern rail have advised the penalty services have just made an admin error, so it doesn’t impact the judgement
Northern speak with a forked tongue here, as amazingly they were able to review my appeal and cancel the penalty fare once it became clear that they didn't have a leg to stand on. They even stated this as the reason for withdrawing the case in open court. Seems they are just hiding behind the independent appeals service when it suits them.
