TFL prosecution letter- caught with wrong ticket got off at a different station

[slilico187]

Hi my wife was caught with the wrong ticket which was from canary wharf to Hayes as I sometimes pick her up from hayes on the way back from work. In this instance I finished early and called her when she was on the train to go home. Instead of getting off at Hayes she stayed on the train and got of at our local station which is Twyford and the ticket inspector told her he wasn't going to issue her a fine there and then and instead she will get a letter through the post instead to explain what happened(attached).

Could I please get some advise on what to do as she is panicking.

 

[AlterEgo]

Hi my wife was caught with the wrong ticket which was from canary wharf to Hayes as I sometimes pick her up from hayes on the way back from work. In this instance I finished early and called her when she was on the train to go home. Instead of getting off at Hayes she stayed on the train and got of at our local station which is Twyford and the ticket inspector told her he wasn't going to issue her a fine there and then and instead she will get a letter through the post instead to explain what happened(attached).

Could I please get some advise on what to do as she is panicking.

Did she have a paper ticket, or was she using contactless? Did she make any attempt to purchase a ticket to cover her whole journey?

 

[slilico187]

Did she have a paper ticket, or was she using contactless? Did she make any attempt to purchase a ticket to cover her whole journ

Thanks for the reply. She had a paper ticket and was trying to buy the ticket but had problems on trainline whilst on the train.

Thanks for the reply. She had a paper ticket and was trying to buy the ticket but had problems on trainline whilst on the train.

She also told the inspector this and she tried again and he told her that there's no point in doing to now there's nothing you can do about it

 

[AlterEgo]

Thanks for the reply. She had a paper ticket

I'm afraid the inspector will have seen this as a red flag.

Buying a paper ticket from Canary Wharf to Hayes and Harlington is very expensive. It's £10.90 single or £21.80 return. Why is she doing that? On contactless it costs less than half the price with single fares at just £5.10 in the peak, or just £3.50 off peak.

At the same time, there is no contactless to Twyford, and paper tickets only are available. £43.20 for a return.

Contactless cards need to be tapped out to calculate the fare due, so she'd need to exit the train at Hayes to pay the Hayes fare. But if she has a paper ticket, there is no need to do that, and she can just stay on the train and hope not to be caught. Twyford also has no barriers, so if you have a short ticket you can exit without issue, and that is why the revenue team will block the station from time to time.

As part of the stop they will have taken her details including her name and address. I note your location given on the forum is Twyford, which is quite a long way from Hayes and Harlington! What inferences from all of this information might the revenue team draw about where your wife usually begins and ends her journey?

TfL may audit your wife's ticket purchasing account if she has been buying her paper tickets online to discover if there are further offences.

Some important questions to consider:

Does she often buy her tickets to start/end at Hayes and Harlington?
Does she travel every day/most days/for work?
Does she have any evidence to support her story that she leaves the station at Hayes and Harlington?

TfL will write to her in due course and ask her for her side of the story. They take a dim view of ticketing matters like this, and often prosecute the offences, but sometimes they can be convinced to settle out of court for the fare/s avoided plus an admin fee. It is best to wait for the letter first, though.

 

[furlong]

At the same time, there is no contactless to Twyford,

Contactless extends all stations to Reading. (Oyster doesn't.)

 

[slilico187]

As I drive to work which is in West London she sometimes comes with me and I drop her at Hayes Station she has done this a handful of times. When she is travelling from Twyford she always gets that ticket which is a return to Twyford. This was the one instance that she stayed on the train and was met with ticket inspectors at Twyford. I have attached the letter in my OP. Just need some advise of what to write back to them as she is scared of getting a criminal record for this.

As I drive to work which is in West London she sometimes comes with me and I drop her at Hayes Station she has done this a handful of times. When she is travelling from Twyford she always gets that ticket which is a return to Twyford. This was the one instance that she stayed on the train and was met with ticket inspectors at Twyford. I have attached the letter in my OP. Just need some advise of what to write back to them as she is scared of getting a criminal record for this.

She goes in maybe once a week

 

[AlterEgo]

As I drive to work which is in West London she sometimes comes with me and I drop her at Hayes Station she has done this a handful of times.

Is there any evidence of this? TfL haven't asked about other offences right now, but that is exactly what they will think given the pattern of tickets. Key to this is why she hasn't been using contactless or Oyster for these journeys. It is rare to see paper tickets wholly on contactless routes precisely because they are so expensive, and are often seen as tools to evade the fare.

Importantly, did she give the same explanation you are, to the inspector? It is important to keep the story straight if so. How and why did she fail to purchase a ticket on Trainline? And, given it was a paper ticket, how did she plan to collect it? And, finally, once the app had allegedly failed, what steps did she take to pay her fare? Inspectors will usually ask "and if I had not stopped you here today, would you have left without purchasing a ticket?".

When she is travelling from Twyford she always gets that ticket which is a return to Twyford.

Will her online purchasing accounts show that? They haven't asked about any other offences yet but if they do show she usually buys from Twyford then it will help her mitigation.

At the moment you are best off:

Apologising for the offence and admitting what has happened, with an acknowledgement that TfL has the right to expect passengers to pay tghe proper fare for their full journey
Offering to pay the outstanding fare and the company's costs
Explaining what, if any steps you are taking to avoid further instances

Limit the reply only to the occasion of the stop - don't get into any other instances or invite them to look further into a purchase history.

 

[slilico187]

OK that's good info, thanks for that.

For the Hayes route we are not Londoners and are not used to what the costs are that tapping was cheaper than a ticket. She has always gotten paper tickets and prints it out of the ticket machine.

She always gets her normal routine tickets from Twyford which shows on trainline. Just some occasions she gets her ticket from Hayes. We will take your advise and hope for the best I guess.

Thanks for your help!