I was convicted for fare evasion without my knowledge, please help!

[Rakkertje]

Thank you for taking the time to read this! I'm looking for some advice related to a fare evasion conviction that happened without my knowledge. I'm in the process of making a Statutory Declaration and am trying to understand a bit more about the situation that I am in.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

September 2020: me and my boyfriend travelled from Tottenham Hale to Stansted Airport both using a 26-30 Railcard. Upon the ticket inspection at Stansted Airport it turned out both of our Railcards had expired by a couple of months and so we were not entitled to the discount on our ticket. This was an honest mistake from the both of us, personally I was convinced I had bought mine for 3 years, so I wasn't aware it had gone out of date. The ticket officer took our details and put us under caution... she said we would hear from Greater Anglia.

November 2020: my boyfriend received a letter from Greater Anglia to pay a fine of £89 and paid this immediately, I never received the same letter.
December 2020: we moved to a new address. I remained in contact with our estate agent at the old address for any mail, because I was still expecting to get this fine. Last time I got mail forwarded from my old address was January 22nd (I have proof of this).

July 2021: I find out there is an Attachments of Earnings order on my salary (quite a large sum) and when I looked into this it turns out that it's a court order following a conviction for this fare evasion? So basically this whole thing has gone all the way to court and I've been convicted without me knowing about it? It's a conviction under Byelaw 18 (1) of the Railway Byelaws made under Section 219 and Schedule 20 of the Transport Act 2000.

I am now working on making a statutory declaration in relation to this, because obviously I wasn't aware that all of this was happening. But with the declaration I am being asked to plead guilty or not guilty... I have a couple of questions I hope you can help with:

1. As this is a byelaw conviction, I believe it's non-recordable (from what I've been reading) so would be spent after 1 year and wouldn't show up on any DBS checks, however it will go on record and can potentially come up in more advanced background checks? I'm wondering if this could cause any problems in the future with e.g. applying for a mortgage or with my immigration status (I'm on pre-settled status under the EU settlement scheme following Brexit). This is especially important for me to know because even if my statutory declaration is accepted, if I plead guilty I will still keep this conviction.
2. Should I plead guilty and write down my plea with mitigating circumstances. Or, given the fact this this was an honest mistake and I had no intent of committing this offence, should I plead not guilty and try to get the entire conviction overturned? I'm worried the judge might not believe it was an honest mistake and I could end up with the same conviction and an even higher fine.. especially as I don't have the financial means to hire a solicitor.
3. If I plead guilty and the case is reopened following my statutory declaration, would it be worth contacting Greater Anglia before the new court date to try and settle out of court?

I'm just really looking for some advise as to what is the best route... Thank you all very much in advance!

 

[AlbertBeale]

Thank you for taking the time to read this! I'm looking for some advice related to a fare evasion conviction that happened without my knowledge. I'm in the process of making a Statutory Declaration and am trying to understand a bit more about the situation that I am in.

SEQUENCE OF EVENTS

September 2020: me and my boyfriend travelled from Tottenham Hale to Stansted Airport both using a 26-30 Railcard. Upon the ticket inspection at Stansted Airport it turned out both of our Railcards had expired by a couple of months and so we were not entitled to the discount on our ticket. This was an honest mistake from the both of us, personally I was convinced I had bought mine for 3 years, so I wasn't aware it had gone out of date. The ticket officer took our details and put us under caution... she said we would hear from Greater Anglia.

November 2020: my boyfriend received a letter from Greater Anglia to pay a fine of £89 and paid this immediately, I never received the same letter.
December 2020: we moved to a new address. I remained in contact with our estate agent at the old address for any mail, because I was still expecting to get this fine. Last time I got mail forwarded from my old address was January 22nd (I have proof of this).

July 2021: I find out there is an Attachments of Earnings order on my salary (quite a large sum) and when I looked into this it turns out that it's a court order following a conviction for this fare evasion? So basically this whole thing has gone all the way to court and I've been convicted without me knowing about it? It's a conviction under Byelaw 18 (1) of the Railway Byelaws made under Section 219 and Schedule 20 of the Transport Act 2000.

I am now working on making a statutory declaration in relation to this, because obviously I wasn't aware that all of this was happening. But with the declaration I am being asked to plead guilty or not guilty... I have a couple of questions I hope you can help with:

1. As this is a byelaw conviction, I believe it's non-recordable (from what I've been reading) so would be spent after 1 year and wouldn't show up on any DBS checks, however it will go on record and can potentially come up in more advanced background checks? I'm wondering if this could cause any problems in the future with e.g. applying for a mortgage or with my immigration status (I'm on pre-settled status under the EU settlement scheme following Brexit). This is especially important for me to know because even if my statutory declaration is accepted, if I plead guilty I will still keep this conviction.
2. Should I plead guilty and write down my plea with mitigating circumstances. Or, given the fact this this was an honest mistake and I had no intent of committing this offence, should I plead not guilty and try to get the entire conviction overturned? I'm worried the judge might not believe it was an honest mistake and I could end up with the same conviction and an even higher fine.. especially as I don't have the financial means to hire a solicitor.
3. If I plead guilty and the case is reopened following my statutory declaration, would it be worth contacting Greater Anglia before the new court date to try and settle out of court?

I'm just really looking for some advise as to what is the best route... Thank you all very much in advance!

Just for clarity of terminology, to save confusion when others join in who're better able to deal with some of your questions than I am... What your boyfriend paid to the railway company after getting a letter from them wasn't a fine. Only a court can issue a fine, if you're found - or plead - guilty to an offence. Payment to the rail company is an out-of-court settlement (to cover their losses, etc), offered by the train company, which avoids a case going to court in the first place.

Your attachment of earnings order is because your case did go to court (seemingly without your being notified), and the court issued a fine after a finding of guilt (unsurprising, if the case wasn't contested), and you didn't pay the fine then levied - again because you didn't receive notification [of the fine] for some reason.

As to the likelihood of your being able to dispose of the case without a court hearing, in the same way that you boyfriend did (as and when your Statutory Declaration works out), hence whether it's worth pleading not guilty along with your declaration, is something I'll leave for others. But logically, given a successful outcome of your statutory declaration should return the situation to where it would be if the case hadn't yet gone to court, then you ought to be able to achieve the same outcome as your boyfriend did. However, he accepted the out-of-court offer at the time, and you - though it wasn't your fault - didn't; so the railway company might consider you're at a later stage of the process and might not want to wind the clock back to the very beginning, only to the un-accepted offer but pre-court stage. (Unless they're happy to accept that your non-receipt of court documents equally applied to their offer in the first place - but the success of the statutory declaration wouldn't force them to do that.)

Good luck.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

I understand why you want to have time to discuss the possibility of an out of court settlement, and why pleading not guilty at this point might provide that time. I won't attempt to comment on whether that would be a sensible thing to do - there may be other people here who can help. But it is possible to know what the outcome of going to court will be on what you have told us.

The charge is 'Byelaw 18 (1) of the Railway Byelaws'. What byelaw 18 says is

18. Ticketless travel in non-compulsory ticket areas
(1) In any area not designated as a compulsory ticket area, no person shall enter any train for the purpose of travelling on the railway unless he has with him a valid ticket entitling him to travel.

From what you have told us, you didn't have a valid ticket, because your railcard was out of date. So you have broken byelaw 18: in legal jargon, it's a 'strict liability' offence - it's not a matter of whether you meant to break the law, just whether you did carry out the action i.e. being on a train without a valid ticket.

As I say, someone may be able to help over how best to get to the point where Greater Anglia will consider an out of court settlement. But you do need to know that if the matter goes back to court then you will eventually be treated as guilty of this offence.

 

[221129]

3. If I plead guilty and the case is reopened following my statutory declaration, would it be worth contacting Greater Anglia before the new court date to try and settle out of court?

If you plead guilty then you'll be convicted and won't be able to achieve an out of court settlement.

should I plead not guilty and try to get the entire conviction overturned?

If you plead not guilty, then you will have more chance to seek an out of court settlement. However it will likely be higher than your boyfriends. Also it is a risk as if they don't accept and proceed to court you will almost certainly be found guilty and will face a higher fine. It's a very risky gamble.

 

[Titfield]

For the sake of clarity:

1) did both you and your boyfriend live at the same address in November 2020?

2) when your boyfriend received his letter why did you not chase up with the Rail Company why you had not received a similar letter?

 

[Kilopylae]

2) when your boyfriend received his letter why did you not chase up with the Rail Company why you had not received a similar letter?

OP says that he was changing address, so he was probably busy, and also mentions that he was expecting a letter to arrive soon. I don't think it's the respondent's responsibility to chase up Greater Anglia - particularly as most would have no idea of the average timetable.

 

[Watershed]

You are likely to have been correctly convicted. The fact that it was a mistake is irrelevant, as far as the law in question (Byelaw 18) is concerned.

As you didn't know about the proceedings, you have the right to make a statutory declaration and reset the matter to the stage where you should have received the summons. But that doesn't change the fact that, based on the circumstances you've described, you are likely guilty.

Now, it's not illegal to plead 'not guilty' to an offence you know you're guilty of - it's entirely your right to make the prosecution prove all the elements of the offence. But if you do end up being found guilty, you will lose the automatic 1/3 'discount' for pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity.

The only way you are likely to have an opportunity to try and get an out of Court settlement is by pleading 'not guilty' - as this then gives you the opportunity to enter into a dialogue with GA, even as late as the day of the trial. But, as above, it does mean that you are liable to end up with a bigger fine if they refuse to settle.

If this is the first incident where you've come to GA's attention and there are no aggravating factors (assault, false address etc.) it's likely that GA will agree to a settlement - albeit it will be quite costly. And if you want to have any chance of doing that, you're going to have do plead 'not guilty'.

For future reference, it's always worthwhile arranging postal redirection (or even just poste restante) for 6 months or a year when you move house, to avoid this kind of situation from arising. It's a small price to pay for the amount of hassle it may save you!

 

[WesternLancer]

December 2020: we moved to a new address. I remained in contact with our estate agent at the old address for any mail, because I was still expecting to get this fine. Last time I got mail forwarded from my old address was January 22nd (I have proof of this).

Good luck with all this, sounds really unfortunate - just on a minor matter, and I suspect you now realise this anyway, but I would not be relying on an estate agent (what incentive do they have to do it? and when they re-let / sell the property they can not gaurantee a new occupant will give them former residents post anyway) to forward on your post when you move. I would always suggest setting up a redirection with Royal Mail (as per their website) - it costs a bit (not that much really) but I have done this for a 12 month period when I have moved address (there are options for shorter periods at lower cost). It also helps prevent ID fraud with people at your previous address who can potentially use letters sent to you to help commit ID fraud.

But as I say good luck with getting it all sorted. Some good advice in the thread I would say.

 

[Rakkertje]

For the sake of clarity:

1) did both you and your boyfriend live at the same address in November 2020?

2) when your boyfriend received his letter why did you not chase up with the Rail Company why you had not received a similar letter?

Yes we lived at the same address. Reason I didn’t chase it up was because I simply expected my letter to arrive later for whatever reason…

Good luck with all this, sounds really unfortunate - just on a minor matter, and I suspect you now realise this anyway, but I would not be relying on an estate agent (what incentive do they have to do it? and when they re-let / sell the property they can not gaurantee a new occupant will give them former residents post anyway) to forward on your post when you move. I would always suggest setting up a redirection with Royal Mail (as per their website) - it costs a bit (not that much really) but I have done this for a 12 month period when I have moved address (there are options for shorter periods at lower cost). It also helps prevent ID fraud with people at your previous address who can potentially use letters sent to you to help commit ID fraud.

But as I say good luck with getting it all sorted. Some good advice in the thread I would say.

Thank you, yes I realise now that this would have been a better option and would opt for this in the future. We did however have a good relationship with our estate agent at the time so I did feel comfortable doing it this way.

 

[30907]

Your top priority must be to "reset the clock" - assuming you plead guilty, your fine will be reduced as already stated, and it will also be calculated on your actual income not an assumed figure; both of these will be to your advantage.

As Watershed has said, pleading not guilty and trying for an administrative settlement would be a considerable financial gamble.

A non-recordable offence such as this is not recorded (except in error) and is extremely unlikely to affect your future.

 

[Rakkertje]

Your top priority must be to "reset the clock" - assuming you plead guilty, your fine will be reduced as already stated, and it will also be calculated on your actual income not an assumed figure; both of these will be to your advantage.

As Watershed has said, pleading not guilty and trying for an administrative settlement would be a considerable financial gamble.

A non-recordable offence such as this is not recorded (except in error) and is extremely unlikely to affect your future.

Yes I feel like the gamble might be too big to take.. I might end up in a worse situation than I am already in..

I wonder if I plead guilty and the case gets reopened if I’d still get a chance to settle with Greater Anglia before the new court date…?

 

[island]

Yes I feel like the gamble might be too big to take.. I might end up in a worse situation than I am already in..

I wonder if I plead guilty and the case gets reopened if I’d still get a chance to settle with Greater Anglia before the new court date…?

If you plead guilty, you will ordinarily be sentenced and will not get a new court date. If you want to try and settle, you'd need to plead not-guilty.

Also, unless you only found out about this on the 30th or 31st of July, you are out of time to make a statutory declaration.

 

[Titfield]

OP says that he was changing address, so he was probably busy, and also mentions that he was expecting a letter to arrive soon. I don't think it's the respondent's responsibility to chase up Greater Anglia - particularly as most would have no idea of the average timetable.

Given the OP had been told that they would hear from GA, and particularly because the boyfriend had heard from GA, a prudent person would have made enquiries.

This is not meant as criticism of the OP but for the benefit of others reading this thread wondering what action they should take if a letter expected as the result of being "stopped" is not received.

 

[Wolfie]

You are likely to have been correctly convicted. The fact that it was a mistake is irrelevant, as far as the law in question (Byelaw 18) is concerned.

As you didn't know about the proceedings, you have the right to make a statutory declaration and reset the matter to the stage where you should have received the summons. But that doesn't change the fact that, based on the circumstances you've described, you are likely guilty.

Now, it's not illegal to plead 'not guilty' to an offence you know you're guilty of - it's entirely your right to make the prosecution prove all the elements of the offence. But if you do end up being found guilty, you will lose the automatic 1/3 'discount' for pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity.

The only way you are likely to have an opportunity to try and get an out of Court settlement is by pleading 'not guilty' - as this then gives you the opportunity to enter into a dialogue with GA, even as late as the day of the trial. But, as above, it does mean that you are liable to end up with a bigger fine if they refuse to settle.

If this is the first incident where you've come to GA's attention and there are no aggravating factors (assault, false address etc.) it's likely that GA will agree to a settlement - albeit it will be quite costly. And if you want to have any chance of doing that, you're going to have do plead 'not guilty'.

For future reference, it's always worthwhile arranging postal redirection (or even just poste restante) for 6 months or a year when you move house, to avoid this kind of situation from arising. It's a small price to pay for the amount of hassle it may save you!

A minor point but unless l'm badly wrong the "automatic 1/3 reduction" relates to sentences of imprisonment and as such is likely irrelevant here.

 

[Watershed]

A minor point but unless l'm badly wrong the "automatic 1/3 reduction" relates to sentences of imprisonment and as such is likely irrelevant here.

It applies to all sentences, including fines.

 

[Wolfie]

It applies to all sentences, including fines.

Interesting. You learn something new every day, TY.

 

[AlbertBeale]

Rakkertje said:
Yes I feel like the gamble might be too big to take.. I might end up in a worse situation than I am already in..
I wonder if I plead guilty and the case gets reopened if I’d still get a chance to settle with Greater Anglia before the new court date…?

If you plead guilty, you will ordinarily be sentenced and will not get a new court date. If you want to try and settle, you'd need to plead not-guilty.

Also, unless you only found out about this on the 30th or 31st of July, you are out of time to make a statutory declaration.

Yes - this is a crucial point - if you plead guilty when you try to reset the clock on the court case having happened, then you're accepting the outcome of the case (ie a finding of guilt) and it's too late in the process for an out-of-court settlement with GA; it's out of their hands at that stage. The only issue before the court is the sentence, not whether or not you're guilty. The only reason I can think of for the statutory declaration along with a guilty plea is in a situation where the fine the court issued is based on an assumption of your income which is inflated, and so by going through the process in court (or telling the court in writing of your actual financial situation; presumably they ask for that as a matter of course) you can get a lesser fine than the one already issued in your absence.

A declaration along with a denial that you're guilty of the offence means that there's a period of time before the contested case takes place, during which you can try to persuade GA to settle with you directly and drop the accusation so it's pulled from the court system. (I can't see how GA could tell the court they're dropping the charge against you if you've already told the court you're guilty!)

As to the deadline for the statutory declaration - you say you discovered the attachment of earnings in July. If you had no idea what this was for, and it took until sometime in August before you discovered the details of the court action which led to it, then since the 21 days starts from knowing about the case you're in time. Otherwise, if the attachment of earnings order led you to the associated court case straight away, you'd have to persuade the court to accept your application out of time. I'm not sure that's easy for a lay person to do.

 

[Snow1964]

Given the OP had been told that they would hear from GA, and particularly because the boyfriend had heard from GA, a prudent person would have made enquiries.

This is not meant as criticism of the OP but for the benefit of others reading this thread wondering what action they should take if a letter expected as the result of being "stopped" is not received.

You were stopped together at same time, you both had the same address, one of you received a letter, the other didn’t.

That means you have to guess if they have decided to just raise one penalty, or if their admin means they have chosen to leave a few weeks longer before raising second penalty for same event. Most people would probably assume second scenario is unlikely.

The problem with the prudent suggestion, is normal advice is not to write to them before they write to you because if no action is being taken you are likely to prompt it.

I too wonder what others thoughts are if you expect a letter but don’t get one.