Today I have received a court summons. It's dated 24 Feb but received today, 12 March. The court date is 23 March...not leaving me much time.
The date stamped on the Summons will be the date on which it was authorised by the Court, it would then have been sent back to the prosecutor's office and then posted to you with all other relevant papers in accordance with the Criminal Investigations & Procedures Act (1996). Unless it's changed since I retired, the minimum time allowed by a Court between service of a Summons and the first hearing is actually only 7 days, but I agree, this does seem a little tight, we always recommended a minimum of 14 days to give a defendant time to respond
They have given me three options:
1) Plead guilty, pay £200 (ticket and court fee) and not appear in court.
I think you may be confused, this looks to me like the total of the fare that they are claiming and the application for prosecution costs that they will ask the Court to award against you if they are successful, probably something in the area of £150 or so, plus the fare. If successful there would also be any fine the Court might choose to impose.
The prosecutor cannot include on a Summons a 'fee to make it go away'
2) Plead guilty, not pay £200 and appear in court in person.
Again, this is an option to accept the allegation and await the decision of the Court, but notifies you of the claim they intend to make and would be added to any fine the Court impose if they are successful in the prosecution.
3) Plead not guilty and then wait for a new court date so the train manager can appear to give evidence.
If you are not guilty of any offence, this is the clear course of action that should result in a full examination of the evidence put by both sides, it also gives you or your legal advisor the opportunity to question the prosecution case and any witnesses, including the Train Manager, in front of the Magistrates
The court summons includes a copy of the train manager's written statement. It includes considerable false information. They've also included a copy of the free gate exit pass she issued for me to leave at Birmingham.
If you can clearly show that the statement by the staff member is false then a not-guilty plea is recommended. You would be well advised to secure the services of a solicitor who is versed in criminal law to represent you, preferably one who is known to the Court at which the case is to be held, but that's not essential.
My partner thinks I should plead guilty and pay £200 just to make it go away but I am incensed - I paid £70 for the original tickets, which have never been refunded despite what TIL seem to think.
I addressed that above, as I said, they cannot include a 'fee to make it go away' on a Summons, but you will need to consider the best option for you. If the prosecutors have not been interested in settling out of Court, you may still be able to convince them to settle if you wanted to, but given what you have posted here, I can understand your reluctance, why admit to an offence that you believe you did not commit.
Can anyone recommend a place to go for advice? Or does anyone have any experience in this? Thanks again, Scott
It's beyond the remit of this forum to recommend any particular law firm to the exclusion of all others, but if you put 'Fare Evasion - Solicitor' into Google a number of good firms will appear in results.
Please do this - any fine/sentence is the business of the court not TIL. They cannot specify any settlement. It appears that they are offering to settle before court and bullying you into a plea.
I think this is a misunderstanding of what is actually printed on the Summons.
From what has been posted it may be that you have misinterpreted the financial implication of pleading guilty. The train company can indicate the compensation it seeks for the allegedly lost fare and its own costs in bringing the prosecution but this is on top of the sentence the court can impose for the offence, which would be decided on by the magistrate.
I agree 100%, the prosecutor must state the amount of the fare that is claimed avoided and if they want the Court to award their costs if successful they must state what their costs claim will be.
Does the paperwork say “Single Justice Procedure” on it?
Unlikely if they are charging with 'intent to avoid a fare contrary to Section 5.3 of the Regulation of Railways Act (1889)
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