Prosecution by Transport Investigations for Fare Evasion *settled!

[GalSang56]

Hi all,
I got stopped when travelling on Chiltern Railways and I am now facing prosecution.

I tried to get from London Marylebone to Gerrards Cross by tapping in with a contactless card, completely forgetting that these are not accepted for part of the journey. I typically book tickets through trainline but I was rushing for the train and did not really think twice as I thought it would come to the same. I got stopped by the train inspector who asked to see my ticket. I explained everything (and admitted that I had done it before, as I had been operating under the same mistaken impression) and offered to pay for a ticket on trainline in front of them to make up for the mistake but they refused and took down my details. I showed them evidence of previous trainline tickets at the time. She said I would get a Penalty Fare Notice, but I never did. I am now facing prosecution instead.

I received a letter and responded to it asking for mitigation and explaining but Transport Investigations are carrying forward with prosecution. In my letter I gave evidence of typically paying full-price tickets on trainline. I am still trying to settle out of court, but I'm concerned that they will see these previous mistaken payments as repeat offences. I am really concerned about a criminal conviction - I am training to be a solicitor and a criminal conviction is not likely to be looked upon favourably.

What can I do? I appreciate this is completely my fault and stupid of me due to a complete lack of attention.

Any advice or similar experiences would be really appreciated!

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Welcome to the forum.

Given your line of work, I imagine that you have come across the adage 'A Man Who Is His Own Lawyer Has a Fool for a Client'. So to some extent it's sensible to ask us for a view - but might you also want to ask professionally? I don't know if you have a mentor who you can talk to in confidence, or if whoever provides your training has something equivalent to a Students Union to support trainees.

But in the meantime, you need to assess your chances of this goes to court. It sounds as if you have identified how often this happened. I think you now need to try to step out of your own skin and work out what conclusion a reasonable person who did not know what you were thinking would come to. That should give you some idea of what the court will think.

Once you know that, you can start thinking about the disciplinary rules for solicitors. Will you be in so much trouble that you can't be appointed? Is there anything else negative that this would add to (this is a rhetorical question - please don't tell us!)?

Once you have done this, you will have some feel for what depth of trouble you are in - and that should give you some idea of how hard to fight it.

In the meantime, continuing to seek a settlement from TIL is worthwhile. Write to them in the way that you would advise a client to write - courteously, concisely, apologetically and practically (explaining what you have done and will do to avoid any repetition). We find that TIL will, on occasion, settle out of court but rarely on the first exchange of letters.

 

[GalSang56]

Thank you for your response!
In the end, they wrote to me and have offered me the opportunity to settle. I hope this also provides some relief to others scouring the forum like I was!!

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Thank you for your response!
In the end, they wrote to me and have offered me the opportunity to settle. I hope this also provides some relief to others scouring the forum like I was!!

I’m assuming that your original post was held by ‘the system‘ for a while before we could read it rather than you having a Saturday very rapidly going from despair to success.

But it’s good to hear of the positive outcome - not just for you but for the insight it gives to what sort of case TIL are prepared to settle out of court.

 

[Kilopylae]

But it’s good to hear of the positive outcome ... for the insight it gives to what sort of case TIL are prepared to settle out of court.

Quite! I'm pleasantly surprised to hear about this one from TIL.

 

[GalSang56]

Quite! I'm pleasantly surprised to hear about this one from TIL.

Me too - based on the forum I thought I would need to exchange further correspondence and cross my fingers (hard!).
I wonder if it boiled down to the fact the Inspector on the scene said I would likely receive a Penalty Fare (although that might boil down to my word vs theirs unless it's on file). The other element is their administrative settlement letter stating that I had no previous offences on file. I imagine that and the evidence of consistent (and full!) payment for the same journey over long periods of time likely played into it?

I did need to send them a couple of response letters first ! (so the general guidance that TIL don't settle at first instance also held true for me...)

 

[30907]

The other element is their administrative settlement letter stating that I had no previous offences on file.

That is very likely, not sure about the others.