Have you been using it a lot? Where you caught during a revenue operation or was it targeted because it was obvious misuse (you may not be able to answer this but it is relevant)?
From what we see, the best chance of avoiding a conviction is to engage a solicitor to handle the matter. This costs anywhere between £700 and £1200 and could result in TfL issuing a final warning. However, a number of recent cases have seen TfL prosecuting the offence where the poster was caught and asking for additional offences to be 'taken into consideration', which allows TfL to collect a significant sum in compensation. If this is now their policy, it becomes very relevant how often you have used the pass as it is unlikely that a solicitor will be able to persuade them to forego that compensation.
Where were you caught? Were the revenue staff looking for you in particular, and lying in wait, or were you caught by chance? (If the former, they'd confront you with a list of all the misuse)
Don't use AI to write a letter explaining your mitigating circumstances.
Depends on the answer to the first question. If you were stopped as a result of targeted intelligence you probably won't find a solicitor any use. And, even if you weren't, your mitigating circumstances have to be compelling to find a solicitor useful. They can't invent a defence or mitigation for you, they can only present it in a certain way.
Thank you for your reply. How do I know if it was targeted? It was a straight line of plain clothed inspectors so I don’t know if it was coincidental
I was caught in Tottenham Court Road, not a route I frequently take
Did they have a list of all the suspected misuse to hand?
I am 23
If there was a bunch of plain clothed inspectors (probably from the revenue protection team) (I.e. they were not in uniform, trying to blend in a bit) then its likely they were on the lookout for you.
If people wonder how they get stopped, it is worth watching the programme about fare dodgers. They often know exactly who they are looking for, and even have a picture. Ticket machines can be set to reject certain ticket types.
Hmm
You shouldn't believe everything you read online.
A Freedom Pass journey history can be kept for at least a year and probably more, as we've seen many times here.
I also called TfL and they said I couldn’t access my journey history from my own card over 2 months ago
That’s correct, although if TfL have an ongoing active investigation they can keep the data for longer.
That doesn't apply to Freedom Passes. TfL can look back a very long time - they own the data; take a browse through the rogues' gallery of Freedom Pass thieves on the forum to see how many had 100,200,300+ offences detected over a year or more.
We can't assume this is true. LU revenue frequently (dare I say usually?) attend in plain clothes and set the gates to indicate high value passes and child tickets. As soon as they see the bar of orange lights when such a pass it touched, they approach the person using the pass. Incidentally, this includes staff passes, which is why I get approached so frequently.
In most cases yes, but posting a TfL verification letter isn’t going to tell us anything new.
I ask again as I did in post 14
They have lots of software at their disposal. One thing which would indicate misuse would be daily use during peak commuter flows, something that would be unusual for a Freedom Pass holder. They have a big list of suspicious Freedom Passes.
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