Hello,
I am seeking advice on a situation involving a prosecution letter from London Midland. I do not have the letter to hand as it has been sent to my home address and I am currently at University, but my Dad has phoned me to outline it for me and will be sending the letter to me to respond, which I need to do within 7 days.
The outline of the letter is that London Midland are intending to prosecute for an incident three weeks ago at Birmingham New Street Station. They have asked me to complete an attached form including name, address, gender, occupation and national insurance number and any comments I wish to make.
The incident in question occured on a Friday morning when I was travelling to do some temporary work in Birmingham. I travelled from Canley, where the ticket office was closed and the Permit to Travel machine was out of order. The train into New Street was late, so I was in a rush to get to work and did not see the Revenue Protection Officer until he was in front of me and asking for my ticket. I don't know whether it was a lack of sleep the night before, as I was stressing about exams four days after and how I should be revising instead of working, or the panic in being late for work, but I made a light hearted comment of "Could've got away with one there!", which I now look back on as an embarrasing facepalm moment. I think the RPO took it as that and didn't seem bothered when I went back to go to the temporary ticket stand to by the ticket.
However, whilst in the queue, another woman came up to me and asked where I had travelled from. I answered Canley and she said "come with me" and took me back to the RPO who took my details and asked me a series of questions including "What did you mean by "I could've got away with that one"? to which I replied "Without paying for a ticket." He also asked me how I would have bought a ticket had he not been there, to which I replied "On my return journey". Another question was "From what I have gathered it seems that you attempted to exit the station without purchasing a ticket. Is this correct?" I replied yes to this as it is the honest answer as I was attempting to get out of the station as quickly as possible to avoid being late for work.
After these questions, I was told I would be receiving a letter and to carry on. I started to go back to the queue to pay for the ticket, when the officer stopped me and said to just go through the barriers. I again attempted to purchase the ticket for both journeys on my return, but was refused by the lady on the temporary ticket office as she said I should've had to pay a penalty fare at the time due to the inspectors, so i could only buy the ticket for the trip back.
I have never had any problems on the train before and am a regular user, as I have travelled from uni to Wolverhampton for rugby nearly every Sunday by train for rugby, so I have a large pile of tickets to show that I am not one of the people the company needs to seriously worry about. Having read the threads from people in similar situations, it seems that there is a large community of people generous enough to help fools like me and offer advice on what to do next. I would obviously rather make an out-of-court settlement if possible, but wonder if my stupid comments have made this unlikely and would like to know whether any of the above information would be suitable in the comments section, or whether to send a separate letter enquiring about a settlement. I apologise for the length of this post, and hope the information is clear enough to get some help. I will post more about the letter when I recieve it.
Dan
I am seeking advice on a situation involving a prosecution letter from London Midland. I do not have the letter to hand as it has been sent to my home address and I am currently at University, but my Dad has phoned me to outline it for me and will be sending the letter to me to respond, which I need to do within 7 days.
The outline of the letter is that London Midland are intending to prosecute for an incident three weeks ago at Birmingham New Street Station. They have asked me to complete an attached form including name, address, gender, occupation and national insurance number and any comments I wish to make.
The incident in question occured on a Friday morning when I was travelling to do some temporary work in Birmingham. I travelled from Canley, where the ticket office was closed and the Permit to Travel machine was out of order. The train into New Street was late, so I was in a rush to get to work and did not see the Revenue Protection Officer until he was in front of me and asking for my ticket. I don't know whether it was a lack of sleep the night before, as I was stressing about exams four days after and how I should be revising instead of working, or the panic in being late for work, but I made a light hearted comment of "Could've got away with one there!", which I now look back on as an embarrasing facepalm moment. I think the RPO took it as that and didn't seem bothered when I went back to go to the temporary ticket stand to by the ticket.
However, whilst in the queue, another woman came up to me and asked where I had travelled from. I answered Canley and she said "come with me" and took me back to the RPO who took my details and asked me a series of questions including "What did you mean by "I could've got away with that one"? to which I replied "Without paying for a ticket." He also asked me how I would have bought a ticket had he not been there, to which I replied "On my return journey". Another question was "From what I have gathered it seems that you attempted to exit the station without purchasing a ticket. Is this correct?" I replied yes to this as it is the honest answer as I was attempting to get out of the station as quickly as possible to avoid being late for work.
After these questions, I was told I would be receiving a letter and to carry on. I started to go back to the queue to pay for the ticket, when the officer stopped me and said to just go through the barriers. I again attempted to purchase the ticket for both journeys on my return, but was refused by the lady on the temporary ticket office as she said I should've had to pay a penalty fare at the time due to the inspectors, so i could only buy the ticket for the trip back.
I have never had any problems on the train before and am a regular user, as I have travelled from uni to Wolverhampton for rugby nearly every Sunday by train for rugby, so I have a large pile of tickets to show that I am not one of the people the company needs to seriously worry about. Having read the threads from people in similar situations, it seems that there is a large community of people generous enough to help fools like me and offer advice on what to do next. I would obviously rather make an out-of-court settlement if possible, but wonder if my stupid comments have made this unlikely and would like to know whether any of the above information would be suitable in the comments section, or whether to send a separate letter enquiring about a settlement. I apologise for the length of this post, and hope the information is clear enough to get some help. I will post more about the letter when I recieve it.
Dan