I see - thanks for the responses everyone
Its been used for a few months now almost daily so its not looking great - possibly a few hundred pounds worth in fares.
My main worry is the impact on career as I've just started working in the banking sector after finishing higher education - such a stupid thing to do on my part and if it goes all the way to conviction (which is looking highly likely) it may ruin any future work opportunities.
I am more than happy to pay whatever sum TfL deem appropriate however it seems after reading some of the posts here they may skip over any opportunity for an out of court settlement and proceed with prosecution.
With that frequency of misuse, I would have to be honest and say that you are going to find it exceptionally difficult to avoid prosecution.
Have a look at the
sentencing guidelines on the Sentencing Council's website. Your best bet, if prosecution is unavoidable, is to plead guilty at the earliest opportunity (note - this means after you are asked to plead guilty or not guilty, not before). If you did that, I might hazard a guess that the sentence might be as follows.
Category 2 offence based on there being high revenue loss but (I'm assuming, from your account) no aggressive, abusive or disruptive behaviour.
That puts the starting point of the penalty upon conviction as a Band B fine. The sentencing range is a Band A to a Band C fine.
Non-statutory aggravating factors would be avoiding paying any of the fare, as well as producing a pass with intent to pass as a legitimate fare-payer. There may be further statutory aggravating factors depending on your history.
Mitigating factors would be remorse (if you can prove this to the satisfaction of the Court) and no previous convictions (assuming this is the case).
Overall I would have thought that a sentence in the high range of Band B, i.e. towards 125% of weekly income, might be handed down. But then again, I am not a solicitor or a judge so this is just a guess.
At the end of the day, it's understandable that you now regret what you did but there is ultimately no good justification for fare evasion and you knew what you were doing so I can't say I'm massively sympathetic, sorry!