Northern Trains FPN - What to do?

[kropotkin2000@]

I'm looking to seek advice for my mother, who has been landed with a Fixed Penalty Notice for allegedly paying "incorrect fare" for her travel from Leeds to Bradford Forster Square a few weeks ago.

A bit of background: she's 72, English is her second language, and she has been retired for over a decade. She has been using a Metro pass (free for pensioners) for probably hundreds of half price tickets between Leeds and Bradford during this time. She had never had any bother or hassle, until last December, when at the gate to leave the station, an 'officer' of Northern Trains checked her ticket and demanded to see her "railcard". Mum had never used a Railcard, and had never been accosted by someone in this manner before, so was completely taken aback and confused, and so said she didn't have one. She was also feeling unwell at the time, and was just thinking about getting home.

No further enquires were made to ascertain whether she might have some other means of obtaining a concessionary ticket, and it escalated into an "incident report" with her giving all her details.

A few weeks passed, and a letter from the Northern Trains DRPU arrived, detailing that an authorised member of staff spoke to her in relation to alleged contravention of Railways Regulations, with an evidentiary report submitted to the DRPU. 14 days were given to submit a written reply by post or by email to "ascertain the full facts".

Since English isn't her primary language, and her defending herself in her own words would be difficult, I immediately wrote an email reply on her behalf (I was fuming at the time) which described what happened from her perspective and explained that she had in fact bought her ticket with a Metro card, which she has had for over a decade. I thought that should have been enough of an explanation.

No acknowledgement of the e-mail was ever received. No automated reply to say "we got it", or any reply whatsoever.

14 days passed, and the Fixed Penalty Notice arrived, reading that they have "evidence that indicates" that she was reported by an authorised member of staff alleging that she committed an offence under the Regulations of Railways Act 1889 and/or Railway Byelaws 2005. The exact allegation being that she travelled from Leeds to Bradford Forster Square without paying the correct fare.

Now, this is patent nonsense, and obviously she has no intention of paying the fine since the allegation is completely false and isn't based on any good evidence. The idea that a 72 year old woman would go out of her way to falsely obtain a concessionary ticket when pensioners can already get a free Metro pass (in West Yorkshire) to buy concessionary tickets, absolutely beggars belief. How do they imagine she obtained her half price ticket in the first place?

Presumably the only recourse is for this to go to the Magistrates Court, and here's the problem. We've no experience of Magistrates Courts. Would Northern Trains DRPU really go so far, even when it looks to me like it would be a vexatious prosecution? Is it worth writing to them again in a letter? Do I need a solicitor and who ends up paying for that in the end?

I imagine a lot of people just pay the fine to avoid hassle, even when they know they're innocent.

 

[anothertyke]

They could reasonably imagine she bought her ticket from a machine. Or that her concessionary pass had expired. The latter has happened to me.

That said, yes, you should write again recorded delivery as calmly as possible stating what happened, enclosing a copy of your previous email, plus a photo of your mother's concessionary pass valid on the date of travel and saying that you and she would appreciate it very much if the matter could be settled.

 

[Haywain]

Presumably the only recourse is for this to go to the Magistrates Court, and here's the problem. We've no experience of Magistrates Courts. Would Northern Trains DRPU really go so far, even when it looks to me like it would be a vexatious prosecution? Is it worth writing to them again in a letter? Do I need a solicitor and who ends up paying for that in the end?

To start with, please try and put your indignation aside and deal with this calmly and rationally. It's not clear that your mum did have a valid ticket and it is a legal requirement to have one before boarding a train. Train companies can, and do, prosecute for this and it is a criminal offence. There is, essentially, no defence in law for a byelaw offence as it is based on strict liability, so you are best reaching a settlement as that will be cheaper and avoid court action.

 

[Brissle Girl]

Do you still have the ticket she purchased? I presume it is clearly marked in some way as being bought with a Metrocard? If so, in your next response you should explain the language difficulty, the fact that she was asked for a railcard, and didn’t understand that meant her Metrocard.

 

[Ben Rhydding]

A West Yorkshire issued ENCTS (old person`s bus pass) gives half fare on trains within West Yorkshire after 9.30am Mon - Fri and all day weekends and bank holidays. It is issued free of charge. It has an expiry date and carries, on the reverse, an invitation to apply for renewal one month before expiry. Like a railcard, it must be shown in conjunction with a discounted train ticket.

We need more detail in order to determine whether the OP`s mother`s journey was compliant.

 

[30907]

For non-locals, the card is an ENCTS Bus Pass lookalike

The ticket will be marked W-Y SNR DISC or similar (I haven't bought a paper ticket with mine lately!). It's a shame your mother's card hasn't been checked more often en route along with the ticket, so that she was familiar with showing it, but on-train staff rarely ask IME if you look old enough

I would hope that Northern would end up treating this as if it were a "forgotten railcard" case (when on the first occasion you are allowed to produce the card after the event, and no extra charge is made). However, because she said she didn't have one, that is more complicated, and I think a modest out-of-court settlement is more likely.

 

[jamiearmley]

Some thoughts:
Firstly, you replied to the letter that you received by email. Are you absolutely sure that you entered the email address correctly? It is worth checking.

As soon as somebody at Northerns prosecutions department receives your communication together with evidence of the West Yorkshire issued senior bus pass, as long as this is the correct pass that has been applied to the ticket then the matter will be closed.

I agree wholeheartedly, that the person performing the ticket check at the barrier that day should have looked at your mother's ticket, seen that the discount applied was the West Yorkshire Senior concessionary discount, and then taken pains to ensure that your mother understood that they were asking to see her bus pass. All the officers are local to the area and whilst complex and bizarre tickets may be outside their usual experience, a simple day ticket between Leeds and Bradford with a senior bus pass discount applied is something that they would be incredibly familiar with.

Are you absolutely sure that the correct discount was applied to the ticket? If your mum bought the ticket from a ticket vending machine she may well have applied the wrong rail card
discount - the vending machines are notoriously difficult to use correctly. If the wrong discount was applied, this could explain why the officer was asking for a railcard rather than a West Yorkshire bus pass.

In any event, be aware that the production of letters generally comes from an automated system. It is most likely that at the time of the production of the letter your email had not been dealt with. Once it is dealt with you should receive a satisfactory response.

As other have suggested, you should contact them again by letter rather than by email, responding to the questions asked in the letter that you received and enclosing evidence of the bus pass held.

Don't worry too much. This is just a process you have to engage with now, and as long as there are no other factors involved, You need not worry.

Good luck!

For non-locals, the card is an ENCTS Bus Pass lookalike

The ticket will be marked W-Y SNR DISC or similar (I haven't bought a paper ticket with mine lately!). It's a shame your mother's card hasn't been checked more often en route along with the ticket, so that she was familiar with showing it, but on-train staff rarely ask IME if you look old enough

I would hope that Northern would end up treating this as if it were a "forgotten railcard" case (when on the first occasion you are allowed to produce the card after the event, and no extra charge is made). However, because she said she didn't have one, that is more complicated, and I think a modest out-of-court settlement is more likely.

As soon as the "Railcard" is produced, this will be treated as a forgotten rail card case.

 

[skyhigh]

I immediately wrote an email reply on her behalf (I was fuming at the time) which described what happened from her perspective and explained that she had in fact bought her ticket with a Metro card, which she has had for over a decade.

Did you provide evidence that the Metro card was valid for her and in date?

 

[Haywain]

As soon as the "Railcard" is produced, this will be treated as a forgotten rail card case.

That's a very confident statement to make when we have so little information about the ticket that was held.

 

[jamiearmley]

That's a very confident statement to make when we have so little information about the ticket that was held.

Made purely in the context of someone saying they don't have a Railcard and then later producing a Railcard which was valid for the journey.

I've covered a variety of potential pitfalls earlier in the same post.

 

[30907]

Are you absolutely sure that the correct discount was applied to the ticket? If your mum bought the ticket from a ticket vending machine she may well have applied the wrong rail card discount - the vending machines are notoriously difficult to use correctly. If the wrong discount was applied, this could explain why the officer was asking for a railcard rather than a West Yorkshire bus pass.

The discounts (on Northern machines, anyway) are listed alphabetically with WY SNR last-but-one.
The only plausible mistakes are:
an alternative WY discount (which would be clearly accidental)
a Senior Railcard discount (some way up the list) which would have been a higher fare but might be claimed within WY by someone in their early 60s and therefore potentially fare evasion. i've done that by mistake (but I had the railcard!).

 

[glasgowniteowl]

So potential error on customers part that I could understand happening is to buy a ticket with a senior railcard discount by mistake, so as mentioned above we would need to know exactly which type of discount was selected on the ticket

Edit 30907 posted pretty much same point at same time

 

[kropotkin2000@]

Do you still have the ticket she purchased? I presume it is clearly marked in some way as being bought with a Metrocard? If so, in your next response you should explain the language difficulty, the fact that she was asked for a railcard, and didn’t understand that meant her Metrocard.

No, unfortunately not. The officer at the end who instigated this incident offered to hand it back, but she was so baffled by what happened to her that she let him keep it. I've honestly no idea if the tickets are marked with the type of concession used, I guess they are?

They could reasonably imagine she bought her ticket from a machine. Or that her concessionary pass had expired. The latter has happened to me.

That said, yes, you should write again recorded delivery as calmly as possible stating what happened, enclosing a copy of your previous email, plus a photo of your mother's concessionary pass valid on the date of travel and saying that you and she would appreciate it very much if the matter could be settled.

She only ever uses the ticket office on the day of travel and only ever buys day return tickets, showing her pass to get the 50% discount. Can you actually buy discounted tickets at machines without any concessionary pass? I'll write again anyway and see how that goes.

Some thoughts:
Firstly, you replied to the letter that you received by email. Are you absolutely sure that you entered the email address correctly? It is worth checking.

As soon as somebody at Northerns prosecutions department receives your communication together with evidence of the West Yorkshire issued senior bus pass, as long as this is the correct pass that has been applied to the ticket then the matter will be closed.

I agree wholeheartedly, that the person performing the ticket check at the barrier that day should have looked at your mother's ticket, seen that the discount applied was the West Yorkshire Senior concessionary discount, and then taken pains to ensure that your mother understood that they were asking to see her bus pass. All the officers are local to the area and whilst complex and bizarre tickets may be outside their usual experience, a simple day ticket between Leeds and Bradford with a senior bus pass discount applied is something that they would be incredibly familiar with.

Are you absolutely sure that the correct discount was applied to the ticket? If your mum bought the ticket from a ticket vending machine she may well have applied the wrong rail card
discount - the vending machines are notoriously difficult to use correctly. If the wrong discount was applied, this could explain why the officer was asking for a railcard rather than a West Yorkshire bus pass.

In any event, be aware that the production of letters generally comes from an automated system. It is most likely that at the time of the production of the letter your email had not been dealt with. Once it is dealt with you should receive a satisfactory response.

As other have suggested, you should contact them again by letter rather than by email, responding to the questions asked in the letter that you received and enclosing evidence of the bus pass held.

Don't worry too much. This is just a process you have to engage with now, and as long as there are no other factors involved, You need not worry.

Good luck!


As soon as the "Railcard" is produced, this will be treated as a forgotten rail card case.

She only ever buys her tickets at the ticket office and always shows her Metro card to the staff, it's something she's done countless times since she retired. Unfortunately she only ever pays by cash, so there's no bank statement evidence of her purchase. She's not good with tech, so never uses the machines. Her current Metro pass is valid until 2028.

I'm pretty sure the e-mail address was correct. It was probably not as well-written as I'd have wanted, but I wasn't really aware with what I was dealing with at the time. It was really unclear what the allegation was at first, and the incident report she got back in December gave no information at all. My mother was really stressed over it and had some sleepless nights after the initial incident where she felt like she was being treated like a criminal, so my e-mail was not wholly diplomatic, but then neither was the letter she got from their automated system.

Thank you for your reassuring response anyway. I will write to them by post and provide proof of her Metro pass, and see how that goes.

A West Yorkshire issued ENCTS (old person`s bus pass) gives half fare on trains within West Yorkshire after 9.30am Mon - Fri and all day weekends and bank holidays. It is issued free of charge. It has an expiry date and carries, on the reverse, an invitation to apply for renewal one month before expiry. Like a railcard, it must be shown in conjunction with a discounted train ticket.

We need more detail in order to determine whether the OP`s mother`s journey was compliant.

The one she has is valid until 2028 as far as I can tell. She used her pass to buy a return ticket minutes before the outward journey at the ticket office, so it was good enough for them. The ticket was inspected on both legs of the train journey by an on board conductor without incident. It's only right at the end of the return leg of her journey at the barriers that the incident happened. It seems logical to me that if she had to have a pass to buy the return ticket before her outward journey, then she must have had a pass on her at the end of her return journey.

Did you provide evidence that the Metro card was valid for her and in date?

Unfortunately not, the communication on the incident report ticket and the first letter from the DRPU gave very little indication of what the alleged offence was at all. It seemed like it was a matter of miscommunication and the officer involved just didn't ask for the right type of card for the discount she had. I thought it would be enough to tell them she had a Metro card rather than a Railcard, because that seemed to be the contention from the account of the incident given by my mother. She only later realised that she could probably have shown her Metro pass.

 

[Mcr Warrior]

How's it going to be possible to ascertain if the (discounted?) ticket purchased and then used by the OP's mother was valid (or not) at the time of use, if it was purchased for cash, several weeks ago, and the ticket itself (or the accompanying receipt) hasn't been retained.

Might have to chalk this one up to experience + pay up.

 

[WesternLancer]

No, unfortunately not. The officer at the end who instigated this incident offered to hand it back, but she was so baffled by what happened to her that she let him keep it. I've honestly no idea if the tickets are marked with the type of concession used, I guess they are?



She only ever uses the ticket office on the day of travel and only ever buys day return tickets, showing her pass to get the 50% discount. Can you actually buy discounted tickets at machines without any concessionary pass? I'll write again anyway and see how that goes.



She only ever buys her tickets at the ticket office and always shows her Metro card to the staff, it's something she's done countless times since she retired. Unfortunately she only ever pays by cash, so there's no bank statement evidence of her purchase. She's not good with tech, so never uses the machines. Her current Metro pass is valid until 2028.

I'm pretty sure the e-mail address was correct. It was probably not as well-written as I'd have wanted, but I wasn't really aware with what I was dealing with at the time. It was really unclear what the allegation was at first, and the incident report she got back in December gave no information at all. My mother was really stressed over it and had some sleepless nights after the initial incident where she felt like she was being treated like a criminal, so my e-mail was not wholly diplomatic, but then neither was the letter she got from their automated system.

Thank you for your reassuring response anyway. I will write to them by post and provide proof of her Metro pass, and see how that goes.



The one she has is valid until 2028 as far as I can tell. She used her pass to buy a return ticket minutes before the outward journey at the ticket office, so it was good enough for them. The ticket was inspected on both legs of the train journey by an on board conductor without incident. It's only right at the end of the return leg of her journey at the barriers that the incident happened. It seems logical to me that if she had to have a pass to buy the return ticket before her outward journey, then she must have had a pass on her at the end of her return journey.



Unfortunately not, the communication on the incident report ticket and the first letter from the DRPU gave very little indication of what the alleged offence was at all. It seemed like it was a matter of miscommunication and the officer involved just didn't ask for the right type of card for the discount she had. I thought it would be enough to tell them she had a Metro card rather than a Railcard, because that seemed to be the contention from the account of the incident given by my mother. She only later realised that she could probably have shown her Metro pass.

Might be worth you posting up a draft of your letter (minus your mother's personal info) to get ppl here to check it so you have the most effective wording to get the best outcome.

You probably need to be a bit subtle on wording eg as you no longer have the ticket and thus can't 100% proove it had the correct discount applied (train tickets will state on them which if the various railcard discounts have been applied so staff can check them correctly) you may need to use wording such as your mother 'firmly believes the ticket was purchased with a Metro card discount' and then enclose the copy of the valid Metro card - because they may have a statement from the staff that the ticket showed a different Railcard discount and you will not be able to proove the staff wrong now with no ticket and a cash purchase. You can make the point that she buys tickets at staffed ticket office and would show her Metro card at the point of purchse etc (basically what you have outlined here)

If you take a reasonable tone with them there is maybe a hope they will consider the matter in a reasonable way....perhaps

Good luck with this.

 

[anothertyke]

So, yes you can buy a concessionary ticket from a machine or on line. It is a condition of travel that you carry your pass with you and show it on request.

Look at it from the perspective of the RPO at Forster Sq just for a moment. All they want to see is that people have a valid ticket and railcard. The circumstances were unfortunate.

In terms of writing to Northern, you have the date and time of the penalty fare notice. You can produce photographic evidence of the ENCTS card (It's not really called a Metrocard). You can say that your Mum got flustered and didn't fully understand what was happening. You didn't get a reply to your email. You understand that on occasions discretion is exercised if people forget or are unable to produce their card on the day.

Engage with them with an argued approach and see what happens.

 

[jamiearmley]

How's it going to be possible to ascertain if the (discounted?) ticket purchased and then used by the OP's mother was valid (or not) at the time of use, if it was purchased for cash, several weeks ago, and the ticket itself (or the accompanying receipt) hasn't been retained.

Might have to chalk this one up to experience + pay up.

A photo of the ticket would have been included within the report made by the officer.

If the passenger did not want to have the ticket back (as we are told in an earlier post) the ticket itself would have been submitted as evidence.

Reports without visual evidence of ticket held, or other concrete evidence clearly determining the type, validity, discount applied etc (such as app history) are not progressed.

I cannot stress enough that as long as the issue at hand is non production of the WY ENCTS pass, as long as this pass is produced that will be the end of the matter.

Remember, we are not dealing with TIL here.

 

[Haywain]

In terms of writing to Northern, you have the date and time of the penalty fare notice.

This is clearly not a case of a Penalty Fare having been issued.

Engage with them with an argued approach and see what happens.

It's not clear what you are suggesting here but it would be best to adopt a conciliatory tone.

 

[kropotkin2000@]

Just for clarity, a penalty fare was not issued.

It went from incident report, to notice of DRPU investigating the incident with 14 days opportunity to respond with an explanation, to a Fixed Penalty Notice that seemingly can't be appealed.

 

[Ben Rhydding]

There is another possible explanation. If the passenger purchased an off peak day return but commenced the return journey between 4.00 and 6.29pm on a weekday, the ticket would not be valid. But the remedy for that would be an excess up to the peak fare. Nothing more.

If the OP is confident of his Mother`s case, he should write to Northern stating that his Mother held a West Yorkshire senior discounted ticket accompanied by the required ENCTS pass so the fixed penalty notice is not valid. He can add that the ticket was purchased on production of the card at a booking office and checked by the guard in each direction. I wouldn`t say anything else at this stage. If Northern disagree, it is up to them to say why. The burden is not on the OP to prove that his Mother is innocent of an unspecified offence.

The advice at post 14 is at best premature. You don`t "chalk it up to experience and pay up" when you haven`t even been told what the alleged offence was.

 

[WesternLancer]

There is another possible explanation. If the passenger purchased an off peak day return but commenced the return journey between 4.00 and 6.29pm on a weekday, the ticket would not be valid. But the remedy for that would be an excess up to the peak fare. Nothing more.

If the OP is confident of his Mother`s case, he should write to Northern stating that his Mother held a West Yorkshire senior discounted ticket accompanied by the required ENCTS pass so the fixed penalty notice is not valid. He can add that the ticket was purchased on production of the card at a booking office and checked by the guard in each direction. I wouldn`t say anything else at this stage. If Northern disagree, it is up to them to say why. The burden is not on the OP to prove that his Mother is innocent of an unspecified offence.

The advice at post 14 is at best premature. You don`t "chalk it up to experience and pay up" when you haven`t even been told what the alleged offence was.

This seems like good advice to me, in terms of what to say to Northern.

 

[185]

May be wrong, but I see three potential reasons here:

- Booking office sold a ticket with the incorrect discount applied (is it still LACON?)

- Passenger travelled before 0930 M-F

- NTL Revenue person wrongly asked for a railcard (edited, or "Metrocard") - it isn't one. It's a WY pensioner's bus pass.

In only the second instance, (0930) the customer is in the wrong.

 

[kropotkin2000@]

There is another possible explanation. If the passenger purchased an off peak day return but commenced the return journey between 4.00 and 6.29pm on a weekday, the ticket would not be valid. But the remedy for that would be an excess up to the peak fare. Nothing more.

If the OP is confident of his Mother`s case, he should write to Northern stating that his Mother held a West Yorkshire senior discounted ticket accompanied by the required ENCTS pass so the fixed penalty notice is not valid. He can add that the ticket was purchased on production of the card at a booking office and checked by the guard in each direction. I wouldn`t say anything else at this stage. If Northern disagree, it is up to them to say why. The burden is not on the OP to prove that his Mother is innocent of an unspecified offence.

The advice at post 14 is at best premature. You don`t "chalk it up to experience and pay up" when you haven`t even been told what the alleged offence was.

The journey was definitely off-peak. The incident took place at 1:13 pm after the return leg of the journey. The outbound journey was definitely after 9:30 am. I don't know exactly, but that part isn't the contention.

 

[John Palmer]

She only ever uses the ticket office on the day of travel and only ever buys day return tickets, showing her pass to get the 50% discount.

That indicates to me that the OP's mother was, at the time she was interrogated by the RPI, in possession of what I take to be the ENCP / WYPTE 'Metro' card that she had produced when purchasing her discounted ticket, and could have produced to the RPI if he had asked for it; no doubt the OP can confirm whether that is so.

Even if the ticket issued doesn't bear a 'W-Y SNR DISC' marking or similar, as suggested by @30907, the fare shown upon the ticket should have made it elementary for a competent RPI to deduce the concessionary basis on which it had been issued.

At that stage, the appropriate question for an RPI to ask is not “Can you please produce to me your railcard?” but “Can you please produce to me your WYPTE 'Metro' card?”. Requesting production of an unspecified 'railcard' was all too likely to elicit the OP's mother's truthful but irrelevant response that she didn't have one.

I immediately wrote an email reply on her behalf (I was fuming at the time) which described what happened from her perspective and explained that she had in fact bought her ticket with a Metro card

Unless it is being suggested by Northern Trains that the ticket produced was invalid for some reason unrelated to non-production of the Metro card, that should immediately have put it on notice that, put at its lowest, there might have been a breakdown in communication in which the passenger had not understood that it was the Metro card that she was being invited to produce. And at that stage Northern Trains DRPU should have responded to the OP's email with a request for the Metro card to be produced, by way of evidence that the correct fare had, in fact, been paid. The failure by the DRPU to do so looks to me like a failure to have appropriate regard to paragraph 3.5 of the Criminal Procedure and Investigations Act 1996 (section 23(1)) Code of Practice:

“In conducting an investigation, the investigator should pursue all reasonable lines of inquiry, whether these point towards or away from the suspect.”

I am concerned as to what the OP's mother has received: is it one of Northern's so-called Fixed Penalty Notices, or is it a Single Justice Procedure Notice or Magistrates Court Summons – if the latter then criminal proceedings are on foot to which the OP's mother will need to respond appropriately. Hopefully the OP can confirm that criminal proceedings have not yet been set in motion.

 

[kropotkin2000@]

I am concerned as to what the OP's mother has received: is it one of Northern's so-called Fixed Penalty Notices, or is it a Single Justice Procedure Notice or Magistrates Court Summons – if the latter then criminal proceedings are on foot to which the OP's mother will need to respond appropriately. Hopefully the OP can confirm that criminal proceedings have not yet been set in motion.

It's just the Fixed Penalty Notice at the moment, with a remark that they're in the process of being prepared for disposal at the Magistrates' court.

That indicates to me that the OP's mother was, at the time she was interrogated by the RPI, in possession of what I take to be the ENCP / WYPTE 'Metro' card that she had produced when purchasing her discounted ticket, and could have produced to the RPI if he had asked for it; no doubt the OP can confirm whether that is so.

Yes, she always has it with her when she's out as part of her journey is by bus, so she gets the bus for free. It dawned on her later that she could have shown him her "Metro" card, but during the incident, she was just confused and flustered, even innocently asking where she could get a Railcard.

 

[John Palmer]

I agree with the advice given by @Ben Rhydding in post #20. Hard to see what else you can do if the issue is a communication breakdown regarding whether a Metro card was held and Northern's DRPU are wilfully disregarding your assertion that it was.

 

[kropotkin2000@]

I think I've enough to go on for now and will send them a written letter and accompanying photo of the 'WY ENCTS pass'. Thank you all for your information and insight, it's been very helpful.

I somehow doubt it will be the end of it, but fingers crossed.

 

[toffeedanish]

There is another possible explanation. If the passenger purchased an off peak day return but commenced the return journey between 4.00 and 6.29pm on a weekday, the ticket would not be valid

For clarity, a West Yorks issued ENCTS pass is valid during these times for a 50% discount on the Anytime Day Return fare.

 

[kropotkin2000@]

Just a quick update. I wrote a letter as suggested, and the matter is now closed. A good outcome in the end.

 

[sheff1]

Good outcome indeed. Pity you, and your mother, had to go through all the hassle.