Hi my friend have recently travelled on the train. In her sleep deprived state and her phone not working properly especially with the internet she thought she had bought her ticket however as the ticket officer was approaching and she was getting ready to show her ticket and she noticed she didn’t pay so she rushing to pay the ticket as she was already on board.
Look at it from the railway companies point of view. Your friend needs to realise that this looks like classic 'pay when challenged' fare evasion. ie board the train and don't buy a ticket until you see an inspector and hope to 'get away with it' - the 'sleep deprived state' line, however true it may have been, just looks like a poor excuse after the event to the inspector.
Your friend could usefully act now to do something that she can show them when they write to her that she has done to avoid this happening again, and has 'learned a lesson', If she uses the train to get to and from work regularly then she should buy a season ticket or flexi season ticket now - this will then show that she has acted to prevent the situation that occurred happening again and say that to the railway company when they ask her about this.
The officer took her details and gave her an orange paper (I’m assuming the penalty).
No that isn't the Penalty - you are thinking of a Penalty Fare (posters for which you or your friend have probably seen at stations warning that you can be issued with a Penalty Fare that may cost £100 for not having a valid ticket.
I suspect that the member of staff suspected your friend may do this regularly (travelling without a ticket) and may thus be a deliberate fare evader, so has issued a report for this to be investigated.
My friend said the officer asked if she had money on the day and to wait for the letter. She’s really anxious right now as she works in the hospital and is scared to loose her job.
If she is a union member, a good idea would be for your friend to have an informal chat with a union representative at work who might be able to give her an idea of how this would best be handled in a situation if it did got to prosecution (which hopefully can be avoided by following the advice above).
Is there any way she can pay the fine soon/online without waiting for the letter?
No, because they have not issued a Penalty Fare. She needs to wait to hear from them -
it is vital that she receives this letter and replies to it promptly in order to avoid being prosecuted. It may take a few weeks or even over a month to hear from them - so be sure to check hard copy post, e-mail and spam for any communication from Thameslink.
And will this affect her job and be recorded as a criminal offence?
It would only be recorded as a criminal offence if they prosecuted her and she was found guilty. She needs to engage with Thameslink to try and prevent prosecution.
She’s never done this before and it’s her first time getting one
She needs to be 100% honest in any dealings - so when you say never done this before do you mean?
a) never travelled without a ticket valid for her journey
or
b) never been
caught before and issued with a Bylaw report or Penalty Fare for example
It is worth bearing in mind that they can access any on line ticket purchasing she has made in the past to look to see if there is anything suspicious on her ticket buying record. You don't have to tell them about that unless they ask but it's best to be honest with yourself and certainly not lie in anything your friend does tell them. The other side of the coin would be if they did look at her past ticket buying record will they see that she buys a correct ticket from a station near her home address to a station near her work address on every working day?
and she doesn’t know what to do. Could someone please help and advise what she should do? As she doesn’t want to go down and be recorded as criminal offence
Yes, you will get good advice here on what to do and how to avoid being prosecuted and getting a criminal record so tell her not to worry too much.
