how can I get this financial settlement? write them a letter/email? how much could I possibly ask for from them? I am a very nervous person and it was quite stressful for me
Firstly I want to apologise to you, if no-one else will do so. What happened here was terrible, should never have happened, and when a mistake is made SWR should have the balls to say sorry profusely and to make it right. Poland is a critical ally of the UK, Polish people have contributed massively to the economy, and to even our country's very existence - it was Poles who solved the Enigma codes. You deserve far better than this, and I'm
ashamed that this has happened to you.
What can you do? Well firstly I think you deserve a lot of credit for resolving this problem and for doing the right thing in terms of getting advice from this forum. But also I would never want anyone else to be treated as shabbily again. Here is something relatively easy to do.
1) Find out your MP, by name, according to the postcode of where you live
2) Write a brief letter to that MP explaining what happened to you, how you were nearly left with a criminal conviction quite unfairly, and how when SWR very late in the day realised their mistake it couldn't be bothered to apologise. Focus on the harm and distress this did to you, and that by referring to the Ralways Act they were effectively threatening you with imprisonment. You had done nothing wrong and SWR seems unaware of their own network structure. You clearly ask the MP to refer the matter to the Attorney General, the Right Honourable Lord Hermer KC (Richard Hermer) to ask whether SWR is a "fit, proper and competent organisation to be pursuing criminal prosecutions".
2a) If the MP is a Labour MP, and only if they are a Labour MP, remind the MP that their recent Manifesto pledged "a justice system that puts victims first".
3) Add a separate bullet point letter giving a one page outline of what happened to you. Finally add a copy of that final letter from SWR where they dropped the matter. Also mention that you are Polish and that you got advice from volunteer members of RailUKforums to eventually stop the prosecution. And stress the sheer incompetence and incivility of SWR's approach. Three sheets of paper in all.
4)
Critically, at the top of the letter copy in the Interim Managing Director of SWR, Mr. Stuart Meek; also the General Counsel for First Group plc, Mr Christy Baker. Just as critically, while referring to that final letter from SWR in the first letter to the MP, do NOT copy that SWR letter to Meek or Baker - make them look it. Post the two (of the three) letters to them separately with Royal Mail tracking.
If you are minded to do this, we can give you help on the MP's letter and on the bullet points, 99% of it is in this thread already. I can give you the relevant addresses for the MP, along with Baker and Meek.
Now the strange thing is that I doubt the Attorney General (AG) will see this letter, but he does not need to see it. MPs vary in quality, Meek and Baker won't know that, but it is 99.9% certain they will react if they get a copy of your letter - they will get very little Parliamentary correspondence and my experience is that they will move very, very quickly when this letter crosses their desk, just in case the MP or AG does contact them for background. I know from experience that company directors - after a case known as Horizon - are urgently asking their General Counsel to clarify their responsibilities under the Companies Act legal framework, so I'm pretty sure your letter will have an impact.
5) Sit back and wait for the replies.
I repeat my apology to you for this event, and I will help with wording of 2) and 3), and the addresses in 4) if you choose to go down this route.
