Notice of intended prosecution

[Marchf39]

Hi everyone,

I have received a notice of intended prosecution as i was stopped once with a discounted ticket, the revenue officer then looked into the history of my bookings and saw that over 200 journeys were made using the same discount. Does anyone have any advice for me or am i totally screwed.

Look forward to hearing from you

 

[transportphoto]

Does the Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) specify the offence(s) they intend to prosecute you for? Have you already been asked to provide your version of events, a statement, or similar?

 

[Marchf39]

Does the Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) specify the offence(s) they intend to prosecute you for? Have you already been asked to provide your version of events, a statement, or similar?

Yes, Railway Byelaws (2005), or the Regulation of Railways Act 1889 and the Fraud Act 2006.
It says that they are giving me an opportunity to explain mitigation that i want to be considered

 

[UserM]

Yes, Railway Byelaws (2005), or the Regulation of Railways Act 1889 and the Fraud Act 2006.
It says that they are giving me an opportunity to explain mitigation that i want to be considered

I’d suggest that with any mention of the Fraud Act 2006, as well as the shear amount of times you have committed the same offence that it a very serious situation you now find yourself in.

I personally would be looking to immediately seek paid for legal advice from a reputable firm (any well regarded criminal defence firm will do) in order to mitigate what may be a serious risk of you being imprisoned or being forced to pay back large sums in the thousands or tens-of-thousands. Just Google for similar cases.

Others may indeed be along with more specific advice, but I personally and may I add with a legal background would immediately be sounding out professional legal representation before replying to any such letter.

 

[Marchf39]

I’d suggest that with any mention of the Fraud Act 2006, as well as the shear amount of times you have committed the same offence that it a very serious situation you now find yourself in.

I personally would be looking to immediately seek paid for legal advice from a reputable firm (any well regarded criminal defence firm will do) in order to mitigate what may be a serious risk of you being imprisoned or being forced to pay back large sums in the thousands or tens-of-thousands. Just Google for similar cases.

Others may indeed be along with more specific advice, but I personally and may I add with a legal background would immediately be sounding out professional legal representation before replying to any such letter.

I have looked into getting one but have found them to be very expensive, i will not be able to financially cope with this. Im a full time university student paying rent at university as well as at home.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Something that would help us a lot to make suggestions would be if you could put a picture of the correspondence you received up here. Make sure all your personal details are hidden as neither we nor the whole internet need to know that!

 

[Wethebest838]

I would talk to your student union for some free legal advice ASAP.

If you post the letters without personal information like your name etc then everyone can advise.

 

[WesternLancer]

I have looked into getting one but have found them to be very expensive, i will not be able to financially cope with this. Im a full time university student paying rent at university as well as at home.

OK - so get on to your student advice service ASAP (via student union or university) and see if the advice service will help you with a response, or if they have a referral deal with a solictors firm - that would charge you a discounted fee in exchange for the referral 'business'. I would be surprised if help was not forthcoming via that route.

Otherwise I guess all you can do is reply to express much remorse, any 'mitigation' can't be much more than you felt you could not afford the fares, and ask if they would see a way to consider a settlement without taking you to court. You do not mention the specific fare evasion but maybe this is eg 200 journey's with a railcard discount when no railcard was possessed or maybe 200 journey's on child fare when aged over 16 perhaps? Either with or without court this will cost a fair bit to sort out so best to start thinking how you could raise those funds (eg borrow from family etc).

Good luck with this.

 

[AlterEgo]

OP, when you say “discounted”, what discount did you claim?

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum!

How did the revenue officer look into the history of your bookings? Was this done at the time you were stopped? Or in some subsequent interview or investigation? While a railway company can obtain access to the persons ticketing account for the purposes of investigating and preventing crime I'd be concerned if revenue inspectors were able to access this sort of highly sensitive information 'on the front line'. Did you show your account details to them?

Clearly an agravating factor in your case is the number of times you have travelled with discounted tickets. I echo the advice of other forum members and suggest that you really should seek professional advice before you reply to the letter but here is the advice I usually give to people who ask for our assistance in how to reply to a letter received from a train company is to include the following:

- That you are sorry for what has happened
- What you have learned from the incident
- That you are keen to settle the matter without the need for court action
- Offer to pay the outstanding fare and the train company's administrative costs in dealing with the matter

Make sure your reply is short and concise, don't give a sob story - they've heard it all before. Most train companies are usually prepared to offer an administrative settlement (commonly known as an out of court settlement) for people who engage with the process and who haven't come to their attention before. There is no guarantee of this and the train company would be well within their rights to prosecute you in the magistrates court.

 

[furlong]

1) Which train company are you dealing with? Is the letter directly from them or from another company such as TIL on their behalf? Different train companies take different approaches to this type of situation - some are easier to negotiate with than others.
2) What was the discount you claimed and in what way were you not entitled to it? (As someone else already asked.)

 

[Piqueteer]

We had something similar. My girlfriend had been travelling on a discount due to lack of funds and I wasn't aware.
We contacted a Fare Evasion solicitor immediately after her being interviewed at the station and they talked us through the process. She had mitigating circumstances of same situation of you, she was very poor and didn't want to put that burden on me but regardless it was a crime. By going to the solicitor it shows an intention to make this right plus she wrote a statement to them and detailed all the journeys she thought she had done (and we added more that MIGHT have been the ones - she paid cash so it was hard to trace but we didn't want to risk this).

The result was that the solicitor was able to settle, all the costs of tickets missed (delta, she paid 70% and owed 30%) plus £250 admin fee to the trainline, plus £650 for the solicitor. It is expensive but the alternative is not worth it. I hope it helps you.

 

[popmonkey]

Were you entitled to the discount on any of the alleged 200 journeys?