Notice of intention to prosecute

[SS1]

Hi there,

I would really appreciate some advice on my situation. My railcard expired on 11 Jan and 11 days later, I travelled on Thameslink with a 16-25 rail card discount completely forgetting that my Railcard has expired. A ticket inspector caught me and asked me to show where my railcard was, I panicked and said that I had bought a digital one but I had not uploaded it to my app. The inspector wrote me up and gave me a link to a Thameslink webpage to provide evidence. After these events, I immediately bought a railcard and when I got home, I used the link and provided evidence of the railcard that I bought.

I have now received a Notice of intention to prosecute from Thameslink informing me to reply to the letter within 14 days. I intend to come clean and mention that it was a complete oversight on my part, I have never, before this incident travelled without a valid railcard and never intend to do so. I intend to show them that I bought a railcard the very same day to strengthen my point. If I ask to settle this with any fine they feel appropriate out of court, what are the chances that thameslink will accept this? Will they still take me to court? Nothing like this has ever happened to me before and this is the first ever incident.
@Hadders @WesternLancer I saw your very useful replies on a lot of the threads here and I would appreciate any help massively.

I appreciate your time

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Mar 2024 ==

Below is what I propose to write back as a respose, I am very worried and would once again greatly appreciate any feedback. Many thanks in advance:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am reaching out in connection with the Notice of Intention to Prosecute I received dated [xxx], pertaining to an oversight regarding my railcard that occurred at St. Albans City station on [xxx].

Firstly, please accept my heartfelt apologies for any inconvenience my oversight has caused. I am fully aware of the gravity of my mistake and deeply regret the oversight regarding my railcard's expiration.

To provide context, on 22nd January 2024, I embarked on a journey not realizing that my railcard had expired on 11th January 2024. This incident marks the first and only time this has every happened. Since beginning my travels on the national rail in 2020, I have consistently ensured the timely renewal of my railcard, underscoring my commitment to comply with the regulations set forth by the rail service. Following the incident on 22nd January 2024, I took immediate action to rectify the situation by purchasing a new railcard, reaffirming my dedication to adherence.

I am keen to settle this matter without the need for court action and understanding the significance of this matter, I am more than willing to cover any fine that you consider appropriate

Once again, I apologise for my actions and the inconvenience caused. I greatly appreciate your understanding and consideration.
I look forward to hearing from you

Yours Faithfully,
xxx

 

[notmyrealname]

Hi.

I expect the experts will be along to advise later. One question on your proposed letter please - is it in your own words? It starts very like something written by AI.

 

[alholmes]

So if you’ve only been travelling on national rail since 2020, you would only have needed to renew your railcard 4 times, at most (annually 2021 to 2024). You didn’t ensure the “…timely renewal of [your] railcard…” in 2024, so at best you only have a 75% success rate. Therefore I don’t think you can make your claim to “…comply with the regulations…”

And I agree with the previous poster - the language style used in your draft is extremely clumsy and unnatural. It certainly looks like it’s been generated by AI. While that’s helpful to provide some structure to your response, you should use your own words and write it in your own style.

 

[SS1]

Hi.

I expect the experts will be along to advise later. One question on your proposed letter please - is it in your own words? It starts very like something written by AI.

Hi, thanks a lot for your response, it is my own words but I used AI to enhance them, this is my original text:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am reaching out in connection with the Notice of Intention to Prosecute I received dated [xxx], about an oversight regarding my railcard that occurred at St. Albans City station on [xxx].

Firstly, please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience my actions have caused. I am fully aware of the gravity of my mistake and deeply regret the oversight regarding my railcard's expiration.

To provide context, on 22nd January 2024, I got on the train not realizing that my railcard had expired on 11th January 2024. This incident marks the first and only time this has ever happened. Since I began using the national rail in 2020, I have always ensured the timely renewal of my railcard without fail, with the exception of this single lapse. Following the incident on 22nd January 2024, I took immediate action to rectify the situation by purchasing a new railcard.

I am keen to settle this matter without the need for court action and understanding the significance of this matter, I am more than willing to cover any fine that you consider appropriate.

Once again, I apologise for my actions and the inconvenience caused. I greatly appreciate your understanding and consideration.
I look forward to hearing from you

Yours Faithfully,
xxx

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Mar 2024 ==

So if you’ve only been travelling on national rail since 2020, you would only have needed to renew your railcard 4 times, at most (annually 2021 to 2024). You didn’t ensure the “…timely renewal of [your] railcard…” in 2024, so at best you only have a 75% success rate. Therefore I don’t think you can make your claim to “…comply with the regulations…”

And I agree with the previous poster - the language style used in your draft is extremely clumsy and unnatural. It certainly looks like it’s been generated by AI. While that’s helpful to provide some structure to your response, you should use your own words and write it in your own style.

Thanks for your response, do you think that my new response is better?

 

[Titfield]

I do not suggest using expressions such as "I hope this finds you well" (irrelevant), to provide context (irrelevant) reaching out in connection (management bulls..t).

Likewise offering to pay any fine that the TOC considers appropriate is naive. They may think lets try £250 rather than our usual £150. (In any case it is not a fine but an admin fee).

I would try and confine the reply to one sentence for each of the four points @Hadders advises.

- 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 TfL's administrative costs in dealing with the matter

 

[SS1]

I do not suggest using expressions such as "I hope this finds you well" (irrelevant), to provide context (irrelevant) reaching out in connection (management bulls..t).

Likewise offering to pay any fine that the TOC considers appropriate is naive. They may think lets try £250 rather than our usual £150. (In any case it is not a fine but an admin fee).

I would try and confine the reply to one sentence for each of the four points @Hadders advises.

- 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 TfL's administrative costs in dealing with the matter

Thanks a lot for your response. According to your experience, what are the chances of them accepting my letter and settling this outside of court given my circumstances?

 

[WesternLancer]

Hi there,

I would really appreciate some advice on my situation. My railcard expired on 11 Jan and 11 days later, I travelled on Thameslink with a 16-25 rail card discount completely forgetting that my Railcard has expired. A ticket inspector caught me and asked me to show where my railcard was, I panicked and said that I had bought a digital one but I had not uploaded it to my app. The inspector wrote me up and gave me a link to a Thameslink webpage to provide evidence. After these events, I immediately bought a railcard and when I got home, I used the link and provided evidence of the railcard that I bought.

I have now received a Notice of intention to prosecute from Thameslink informing me to reply to the letter within 14 days. I intend to come clean and mention that it was a complete oversight on my part, I have never, before this incident travelled without a valid railcard and never intend to do so. I intend to show them that I bought a railcard the very same day to strengthen my point. If I ask to settle this with any fine they feel appropriate out of court, what are the chances that thameslink will accept this? Will they still take me to court? Nothing like this has ever happened to me before and this is the first ever incident.
@Hadders @WesternLancer I saw your very useful replies on a lot of the threads here and I would appreciate any help massively.

I appreciate your time

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Mar 2024 ==

Below is what I propose to write back as a respose, I am very worried and would once again greatly appreciate any feedback. Many thanks in advance:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am reaching out in connection with the Notice of Intention to Prosecute I received dated [xxx], pertaining to an oversight regarding my railcard that occurred at St. Albans City station on [xxx].

Firstly, please accept my heartfelt apologies for any inconvenience my oversight has caused. I am fully aware of the gravity of my mistake and deeply regret the oversight regarding my railcard's expiration.

To provide context, on 22nd January 2024, I embarked on a journey not realizing that my railcard had expired on 11th January 2024. This incident marks the first and only time this has every happened. Since beginning my travels on the national rail in 2020, I have consistently ensured the timely renewal of my railcard, underscoring my commitment to comply with the regulations set forth by the rail service. Following the incident on 22nd January 2024, I took immediate action to rectify the situation by purchasing a new railcard, reaffirming my dedication to adherence.

I am keen to settle this matter without the need for court action and understanding the significance of this matter, I am more than willing to cover any fine that you consider appropriate

Once again, I apologise for my actions and the inconvenience caused. I greatly appreciate your understanding and consideration.
I look forward to hearing from you

Yours Faithfully,
xxx

Hi - I think high chance Thameslink will settle with you - I guess you need to focus on (ie convince them) that this was juts a one off over sight ref renewing the card - and your action to renew it immediately was in an effort to resolve this swiftly - and not something you only bothered to do when caught. But I think the tone of your style is a bit OTT (apols if this is how you usually write...) so you could edit it a bit. In fact you explanation to the forum in your original message is clear and the tone / writing style you use in that is fine really.

There are many prev threads with Railcard renewal oversights like this and they usually seem to get settled.

so really just saying your apols, explaining an oversight for which I apologise, I immediately renewed my Railcard to correct things, won't let it happen again, would be grateful if they can consider settling the matter without the need for court action etc, as well expressed by @Titfield above

As I say, unless you are persistently evading fares v strong chance IMHO of this being settled.

Good luck with it and head back here as and when you need advice as things progress. People will be happy to help.

 

[AlterEgo]

Hi there,

I would really appreciate some advice on my situation. My railcard expired on 11 Jan and 11 days later, I travelled on Thameslink with a 16-25 rail card discount completely forgetting that my Railcard has expired. A ticket inspector caught me and asked me to show where my railcard was, I panicked and said that I had bought a digital one but I had not uploaded it to my app. The inspector wrote me up and gave me a link to a Thameslink webpage to provide evidence. After these events, I immediately bought a railcard and when I got home, I used the link and provided evidence of the railcard that I bought.

I have now received a Notice of intention to prosecute from Thameslink informing me to reply to the letter within 14 days. I intend to come clean and mention that it was a complete oversight on my part, I have never, before this incident travelled without a valid railcard and never intend to do so. I intend to show them that I bought a railcard the very same day to strengthen my point. If I ask to settle this with any fine they feel appropriate out of court, what are the chances that thameslink will accept this? Will they still take me to court? Nothing like this has ever happened to me before and this is the first ever incident.
@Hadders @WesternLancer I saw your very useful replies on a lot of the threads here and I would appreciate any help massively.

I appreciate your time

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 4 Mar 2024 ==

Below is what I propose to write back as a respose, I am very worried and would once again greatly appreciate any feedback. Many thanks in advance:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am reaching out in connection with the Notice of Intention to Prosecute I received dated [xxx], pertaining to an oversight regarding my railcard that occurred at St. Albans City station on [xxx].

Firstly, please accept my heartfelt apologies for any inconvenience my oversight has caused. I am fully aware of the gravity of my mistake and deeply regret the oversight regarding my railcard's expiration.

To provide context, on 22nd January 2024, I embarked on a journey not realizing that my railcard had expired on 11th January 2024. This incident marks the first and only time this has every happened. Since beginning my travels on the national rail in 2020, I have consistently ensured the timely renewal of my railcard, underscoring my commitment to comply with the regulations set forth by the rail service. Following the incident on 22nd January 2024, I took immediate action to rectify the situation by purchasing a new railcard, reaffirming my dedication to adherence.

I am keen to settle this matter without the need for court action and understanding the significance of this matter, I am more than willing to cover any fine that you consider appropriate

Once again, I apologise for my actions and the inconvenience caused. I greatly appreciate your understanding and consideration.
I look forward to hearing from you

Yours Faithfully,
xxx

It's fine to use AI to give you the structure of a letter if you really struggle, but this is just excreted straight out of ChatGPT and it shows. AI only knows a few stock phrases and just glues them together with passive language and Americanised spellings.

You don't "hope the letter finds you well", this is a formal letter which is going to be in response to a threat of prosecution. You need to address it specifically to whoever or whichever department wrote to you, and begin by directly confronting the reason for writing "I acknowledge your notice of intention to prosecute..." etc. (We do not say "reaching out" in the UK, this is an Americanism and in any case is not appropriate in a letter of this tone)

"underscoring my commitment to comply with the regulations set forth by the rail service"
"reaffiriming my dedication to adherence"
"heartfelt apologies"
all overwrought and insincere for example, especially when set in a letter which has the clunky "my travels on the national rail" in it which makes no sense (I think you mean either on the National Rail network - proper noun - or on National Rail - again a proper noun).

 

[Islineclear3_1]

You need to re-write the letter in your own words. You need to convince Thameslink that you are truly sorry and that you won't do this again. Also remember, you are not entitled to pay a fee, fine or any settlement - that is up to Thameslink to decide. If they do offer an out of court settlement, ensure you have the funds to pay immediately

 

[SS1]

Hi all, thank you so much for your advice. I have taken your points about my wording into account and have rewritten my response. Can you please let me know your thoughts on the letter below, many thanks in advance!

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing in response to the Notice of Intention to Prosecute dated [xxx], related to an oversight with my railcard at St. Albans City station on 22 Jan 2024.
I was travelling to work on 22 Jan 2024, not realising that my railcard had expired on 11 Jan 2024. I sincerely apologize for my carelessness and I acknowledge the seriousness of my error. This was my first day of travel since the expiry and before this day I had never travelled with an incorrect ticket. I have always made sure that my railcard is up to date and I am shocked that I have shown such irresponsibility. I will ensure that this never happens again, after speaking with the Revenue Protection Inspector, I took immediate action by renewing my railcard to try and rectify my actions (New railcard number: XXX).

I would be grateful if you would consider settling the matter without the need for court action, I am willing to pay the outstanding fare and administrative costs in dealing with the matter.

Once again, I apologise for the inconvenience my actions have caused.

 

[WesternLancer]

Hi all, thank you so much for your advice. I have taken your points about my wording into account and have rewritten my response. Can you please let me know your thoughts on the letter below, many thanks in advance!

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing in response to the Notice of Intention to Prosecute dated [xxx], related to an oversight with my railcard at St. Albans City station on 22 Jan 2024.
I was travelling to work on 22 Jan 2024, not realising that my railcard had expired on 11 Jan 2024. I sincerely apologize for my carelessness and I acknowledge the seriousness of my error. This was my first day of travel since the expiry and before this day I had never travelled with an incorrect ticket. I have always made sure that my railcard is up to date and I am shocked that I have shown such irresponsibility. I will ensure that this never happens again, after speaking with the Revenue Protection Inspector, I took immediate action by renewing my railcard to try and rectify my actions (New railcard number: XXX).

I would be grateful if you would consider settling the matter without the need for court action, I am willing to pay the outstanding fare and administrative costs in dealing with the matter.

Once again, I apologise for the inconvenience my actions have caused.

Hi there - looks loads better!

 

[Hadders]

I agree the latest draft is much better and I would expect GTR to offer you an out of court settlement. Expect to have to pay around £150 plus the outstanding fare.

Please do let us know how you get on.

 

[SS1]

Hi all,

Once again thanks for your help last week.

It has been a week since Thameslink have received my correspondence regarding the letter of intention to prosecute which I sent 1st class signed, however, I have not received any response from them. I have called the prosecutions department and the person on the other end said that there is nothing in the system/notes which mention that a letter has been received.

Is it normal for them to take this long to reply? Does anyone know what the approximate timeframe for response is?

Many thanks in advance

 

[John R]

I presume you have checked that it was actually delivered (that’s the whole point of a signed for service)?

 

[SS1]

I presume you have checked that it was actually delivered (that’s the whole point of a signed for service)?

Hi,

Yes, it has been delivered. I can see through Royal Mail tracking

 

[Haywain]

Hi,

Yes, it has been delivered. I can see through Royal Mail tracking

Delivered doesn't necessarily mean it's got to the office and been opened and read. You will just have to be patient.

 

[John R]

Hi,

Yes, it has been delivered. I can see through Royal Mail tracking

I would be inclined to phone again, tell them that, and ask for an email address to send a copy through to.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 14 Mar 2024 ==

Delivered doesn't necessarily mean it's got to the office and been opened and read. You will just have to be patient.

Most large organisations would open, scan and record on day of receipt in my experience. So it should be in the system, even if not got to the point of being read or actioned.

 

[Hadders]

It normally takes at least a couple of weeks to get a response. Could be as simple as the person dealing with your case has been off.

 

[Haywain]

Most large organisations would open, scan and record on day of receipt in my experience. So it should be in the system, even if not got to the point of being read or actioned.

The post at King's Cross gets delivered to the main Network Rail reception and is collected from there by the various different companies that have offices there, so delivered and signed for does not mean opened and read.

 

[SS1]

Hi all,

I just wanted to give an update:
I have received an out of court settlement of £76.90.

I want to thank you all for taking time and effort you dedicated to provide help, especially how promptly everyone responded.

Wish you all the best!

 

[Hadders]

Thanks for letting us know. That’s a decent result for you!

 

[30907]

Worth noting, too, that GTR's admin costs are (once again) in the £50-70 region for a straightforward one-off case.