Payment Plans for Out of Court Settlements

[Hadders]

We’ve recently seen a case where West Midlands Trains has offered a payment plan for an out of court settlement.

Need help with travel fraud investigation

I received an email from the West Midlands Trains frauds team. I used a railcard when buying on Trainline, I genuinely thought I was eligible for the job centre rail card as I was receiving payments from them as was out of work for health reasons. I couldn’t show the rail card to the inspector...

www.railforums.co.uk

Historically it’s always been the case that TOCs want out of court settlements paid within six months of the offence so they retain the option of prosecution.

Does anyone know about how these payment plans work?

- How long is the cost spread over?
- Does the settlement still have to be paid within six months from the date of the incident?
- Does paying a settlement through a payment plan cost more than paying it in one go? If so, what is the rate of interest?
- Is it necessary to enter into a credit agreement to access a payment plan?
- Are WMT using the services of an outside company to process these payment plans (eg companies like Klarna)?

 

[island]

I came across a situation on Reddit where a prosecution had been commenced by SJPN and a settlement was reached before the court date. A 6 month payment plan was requested by the defendant and the court was asked to adjourn the case to 6 months later, with a view to the TOC offering no evidence if the payments were made.

In this case the prosecution had been commenced within 6 months of the offence.