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Prosecution

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kofford1997

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Hello, I received a letter through the post because a few days ago I had lost my bank card while on the way to the train station but luckily had my friend with me who was okay with me transferring money to his account for me to use his card. Being in a rush for the train and arriving at the station as the train was starting to arrive, I didn’t think we had enough time to transfer money, purchase the ticket and still get on the train so we thought it would be easier to either get one on the train if we see the ticket person or just buy a return ticket from the station we were travelling to. Turns out it wasn’t okay. Fast forward a few days and a letter arrives asking me if the person interviewed was me, asking for DOB, address, national insurance number etc., so I filled it all out and on the back gave my version of events that I was not looking to “get a free ride” as the person interviewing me kept telling me, and that I had actually had money in my bank account, which I had asked him if I should also transfer some extra to my friend and we can pay a penalty fare right then, as I acknowledged it was our fault for not leaving earlier as it would have helped with a lot of things, adding in I also wouldn’t have lost my bank card due to rushing. The letter was sent off Royal Mail Special Delivery, which in itself was very expensive and not working doesn’t help with money situations, and when I looked at the track and trace this morning I find they “attempted delivery but there was no one there to sign for it” so it’s now just sat at their post office. Great, I had 7 days from the date on the letter and am left with 4 days. It makes me think that maybe that’s their plan all along. Make sure people don’t get letters back to them within 7 days as then they can have their merry old way with them.
 
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Darandio

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The attempted delivery was this morning? It's Saturday and a bank holiday weekend to boot, depending on who is involved here they may be closed and there genuinely was nobody to receive it.
 

Haywain

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Make sure people don’t get letters back to them within 7 days as then they can have their merry old way with them.
You will get plenty of help here but that sort of thinking won't do you any favours. By your own admission you boarded a train without a ticket and therefore committed an offence, so you will have to bear the consequences of that - your inability to pay on arrival at the station is not the railway's problem.
 

kofford1997

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You will get plenty of help here but that sort of thinking won't do you any favours. By your own admission you boarded a train without a ticket and therefore committed an offence, so you will have to bear the consequences of that - your inability to pay on arrival at the station is not the railway's problem.
I never said I didn’t do anything wrong did I? I was more than willing to pay the price of the ticket when arrived plus the added addition of a fine, which I wasn’t even offered. As soon as I mentioned that I had lost my card on the way to the station, that was when he turned from Dr Jekyll to Mr Hyde, making out I was some sort of criminal mastermind and had this plan in motion from the get go
 

skyhigh

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It makes me think that maybe that’s their plan all along. Make sure people don’t get letters back to them within 7 days as then they can have their merry old way with them.
I can assure you there's no 'plan' to delay receipt of letters - if they wanted to, they'd be fully able to take you straight to court without offering you the chance to reply to them at all. It's the Saturday of a bank holiday weekend.
I was more than willing to pay the price of the ticket when arrived plus the added addition of a fine, which I wasn’t even offered.
There is no automatic entitlement to a penalty fare.
As soon as I mentioned that I had lost my card on the way to the station, that was when he turned from Dr Jekyll to Mr Hyde, making out I was some sort of criminal mastermind and had this plan in motion from the get go
To be blunt, you made the mistake of boarding without first buying a valid ticket. It would serve you well to drop all this nonsense - if the reply you wrote back was in a similar style to how you're posting on here I suspect your chance of settlement may be slim.
The letter was sent off Royal Mail Special Delivery, which in itself was very expensive and not working doesn’t help with money situations, and when I looked at the track and trace this morning I find they “attempted delivery but there was no one there to sign for it” so it’s now just sat at their post office.
In which case, they will attempt redelivery on Tuesday. I'm sure the train company will take the bank holiday into consideration when looking at timescales.
 

kofford1997

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I can assure you there's no 'plan' to delay receipt of letters - if they wanted to, they'd be fully able to take you straight to court without offering you the chance to reply to them at all. It's the Saturday of a bank holiday weekend.

There is no automatic entitlement to a penalty fare.

To be blunt, you made the mistake of boarding without first buying a valid ticket. It would serve you well to drop all this nonsense - if the reply you wrote back was in a similar style to how you're posting on here I suspect your chance of settlement may be slim.

In which case, they will attempt redelivery on Tuesday. I'm sure the train company will take the bank holiday into consideration when looking at timescales.
No, the reply I wrote back was not in the “same style”, I owned up to my mistake, told them that I was sorry for not purchasing a ticket beforehand, and asked if they would allow me to pay administration fees and any deserved fines as a means of an apology
 

gray1404

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What stations did you travel from and to? What is the name of the train company who wrote to you?
 

skyhigh

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No, the reply I wrote back was not in the “same style”, I owned up to my mistake, told them that I was sorry for not purchasing a ticket beforehand, and asked if they would allow me to pay administration fees and any deserved fines as a means of an apology
In which case you're likely (if this is a first offence) to be offered a settlement of the outstanding fare, plus an administration fee of up to a few hundred pounds. In a previous thread, Southeastern offered a settlement of the fare + £250 costs, to give you a rough idea of the amount you might be looking at.
 

kofford1997

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In which case you're likely (if this is a first offence) to be offered a settlement of the outstanding fare, plus an administration fee of up to a few hundred pounds. In a previous thread, Southeastern offered a settlement of the fare + £250 costs, to give you a rough idea of the amount you might be looking at.
I’ve received a penalty fine before, but have never been had something like this happen to me.
 

kofford1997

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Just a little update, not sure how this works as never had to do this sort of thing before. I went on to the Revenue Protection Support Services Website and clicked Out of Court Settlement, just being curious, put in my reference number and name and accessed my case, It seems to have given me an option to pay £254.50, Is this correct? Do Southeastern Prosecutions know about this or if I pay it via the RPSS Website, are Southeastern still going to try and take me to court, or on another hand, could the fact that I asked them for an out of court settlement in my letter to them, and just haven’t been patient enough to await any sort of reply from them actually have paid of and they will be willing to make an agreement, and the £254.50 is what they are willing to settle on?
 

pelli

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You might be interested in this recent thread:
If I understand correctly, that person similarly was in trouble with Southeastern and stumbled upon an out of court settlement amount being requested on the RPSS website. After trying, but failing, to get official confirmation that the settlement offer was valid, they decided to pay the amount requested (carefully taking screenshots of everything along the way), and then eventually managed to obtain confirmation that their settlement had been accepted and the case had been closed.
 

kofford1997

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You might be interested in this recent thread:
If I understand correctly, that person similarly was in trouble with Southeastern and stumbled upon an out of court settlement amount being requested on the RPSS website. After trying, but failing, to get official confirmation that the settlement offer was valid, they decided to pay the amount requested (carefully taking screenshots of everything along the way), and then eventually managed to obtain confirmation that their settlement had been accepted and the case had been closed.
Thank you for the reply, I think I’m going to do what that member did and pay the settlement via the website, all the while keeping screenshots of the necessary evidence in case they try to take it further, like screenshots of the confirmation of payment and a screenshot of my bank account once the money has been processed
 

island

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Just a little update, not sure how this works as never had to do this sort of thing before. I went on to the Revenue Protection Support Services Website and clicked Out of Court Settlement, just being curious, put in my reference number and name and accessed my case, It seems to have given me an option to pay £254.50, Is this correct? Do Southeastern Prosecutions know about this or if I pay it via the RPSS Website, are Southeastern still going to try and take me to court, or on another hand, could the fact that I asked them for an out of court settlement in my letter to them, and just haven’t been patient enough to await any sort of reply from them actually have paid of and they will be willing to make an agreement, and the £254.50 is what they are willing to settle on?
That sounds as though it is an offer to discontinue the prosecution on payment of the amount in question. If you choose to accept the offer and make the payment, print or otherwise make a record of everything proposed and retain it until at least 7 months after the date of the offence.
 

kofford1997

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27 Aug 2021
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Just a further update. I did in fact receive a letter from Southeastern Prosecution saying that they are willing to do an Out of Court Settlement and it must be paid within 21 days of the date on the letter. So at least I have the proof now that they are willing to settle it out of court
 
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