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Travelling with a railcard-discounted ticket and no valid railcard

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Rose Barker

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Mod Note: Posts #1 - #2 were originally in this thread.

- I am in the above situation. Do you recommend I go straight to the Prosecution Office in person and show how utterly remorseful I am and ask to settle straight away (I was never offered the option to pay for a full price fare, just had an MR11 filled in) and pay for any fines etc? Or do I wait for a letter that will be sent after 14 days, by which time they wouldn't have received any evidence from me of a valid railcard? Will that letter be a Warning, stating a penalty fine to pay, or is it more likely to be a Summons / Prosecution letter? If the latter, will I still be able to ask to settle out of court after receiving such a letter?

Basically, my question is am I better off going in person to their office to try and settle, or do I write to them now to settle (even though there's no guarantee I'll get a letter from them in 2 weeks, as my case might just slip off their radar?! - and so I may in fact incriminate myself by writing), or do I wait for a letter from them which I then respond to (and hope it won't be too late)?

Panicking here. And really want to settle this. I was totally stupid and am so ashamed. At the beginning of my career, so can't let this affect things!

Any immediate response with advice will be much appreciated, as I'm thinking of going to their office first thing tomorrow morning, as this happened on the 27th Dec, whilst the office was closed.

Thank you so much.

Original post...

I am keen to know the outcome as the same thing happened to me. Please respond asap! I did not however say I had one, I said i did not have a card on me, I wasn’t given the option to pay the full fare...
 
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najaB

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Original post...

I am keen to know the outcome as the same thing happened to me. Please respond asap! I did not however say I had one, I said i did not have a card on me, I wasn’t given the option to pay the full fare...
Could you please provide a bit more information - e.g. where were you travelling from/to, what ticket did you hold, where were you stopped and what conversation did you have with the guard/revenue protection inspector.
 

Rose Barker

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Could you please provide a bit more information - e.g. where were you travelling from/to, what ticket did you hold, where were you stopped and what conversation did you have with the guard/revenue protection inspector.

rgot stopped at barrier

Inspector asked for my railcard and i stood to the side looked at the ticket and said i do not have one all i have is my student card.

The ticket was a single w 16/25 rail discount

She told me all i needed to do was produce a railcard and scan it to the email she went me within 14 days which i have done....

I wasnt offered a penalty fare
 
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swt_passenger

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She told me all i needed to do was produce a railcard and scan it to the email she went me within 14 days which i have done....
Altho i have now bought a railcard...
I think the staff member has made an error here. As you may have now realised, your purchase of a new railcard after the event does not really put you in the same position as someone who has simply forgotten their in-date railcard.

I think the current guidelines in the case of a genuine "forgotten railcard" are to either charge for a new ticket, or charge a penalty fare in certain areas, and then refund the extra payment afterwards. But this is itself a fairly recent alteration, a year or two back there was no such leeway at all...
 

Fawkes Cat

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If I have understood what has happened properly
- you have now bought a railcard, which won't have been valid when you travelled
- you have scanned the railcard, and sent the picture to the railway's email address as they asked.

If that's the case, there's nothing you can do now: you'll have to wait for the railway to get back to you. There are essentially three things that the railway could do:
- decide that you have made a mistake, and they will say no more about it
- decide that whether you made a mistake or were meaning to pay less than you should, the best solution is to ask you to settle out of court: that would mean they would ask you to pay the train fare that you should have paid and the costs that they have incurred in having to look at your case (so this will come to an amount of around £100, or maybe more)
- decide that you have done the wrong thing, and take you to court. This could result in a fine, plus 'victim surcharge' (the cost of the ticket you should have bought), plus a court fee. Depending on what you are charged with, it could also result in a criminal record.

All of these are possible outcomes. My feeling is that the most likely is the railway offering you the chance to settle out of court, so start saving now to pay them!

Try not to worry too much: the worst that can plausibly happen is that you will receive a fine and a (minor) criminal record: you won't be sent to prison and a small black mark on a criminal record rarely stops you getting a job, although it may mean the occasional embarrassing conversation with an employer explaining why something will show up on a DBS check and what happened.

So wait for the railway to come back to you. When that happens, we should be able to give some more suggestions of what you should do.
 

Rose Barker

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Thank you ... hopefully it will go well as this was a mistake I’d have happilyany never done anything like this before especially his was offered originally
 
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Rose Barker

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I have a question,

E.g indecent happened 1st may 2018 but railcard says valid until 7th may 2019 suggesting it was purchased april 30th ,
 
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221129

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railcard company adds an extra week to validity from the time of purchase to allow for delivery time and on my railcard the valid until date shows that including this extra week it would have been valid from the day before


E.g indecent happened 1st may 2018 but railcard says valid until 7th may 2019 suggesting it was purchased april 30th ,

No, it will be valid from the 1st of May and will be obvious to any investigator with half a brain cell.
 

najaB

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I have a question, as i bought the railcard an hour after the incident will they be able to tell it wasnt valid at the time?
If it was bought with cash, at your origin station then possibly not. Since it was bought online, yes they will.
 

Rose Barker

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Yup i thought so, which is why im confused as to why i was told to send it off when i said i didnt have one at the time. Guess i will have to wait and see
 

najaB

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Yup i thought so, which is why im confused as to why i was told to send it off when i said i didnt have one at the time. Guess i will have to wait and see
I suppose it comes down to the difference in meaning between "I don't have it." and "I don't have one." in answer to "Can I see your railcard, please?"
 

Rose Barker

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Any ideas on how long it will take for a letter to come? This event is fuelling my anxiety and depression and I am genuinely feeling suicidal which has happened before. Is there a number I could call to speed up the process? I can’t function
 

Haywain

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It could take a number of weeks before you hear anything. The end result will not be more than a financial penalty and, at worst, a minor criminal record.
 

Spurs

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Any ideas on how long it will take for a letter to come? This event is fuelling my anxiety and depression and I am genuinely feeling suicidal which has happened before. Is there a number I could call to speed up the process? I can’t function
You can try asking your doctor to write to them but no guarantees at all - unfortunately they're very unlikely to listen to such a request from you because so many people claim the same thing.
 

_toommm_

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Any ideas on how long it will take for a letter to come? This event is fuelling my anxiety and depression and I am genuinely feeling suicidal which has happened before. Is there a number I could call to speed up the process? I can’t function

As said it could be a couple of weeks but at maximum it could take and they're allowed to take up to six months to respond to you.
 

221129

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As said it could be a couple of weeks but at maximum it could take and they're allowed to take up to six months to respond to you.
This is incorrect. They have six months to apply for a summons from the court. There is no time limit set for that summons to be issued, which would not be from the TOC. The TOC has no obligation to write to the defendant at all if they have sufficient evidence to proceed straight to court.
 

Rose Barker

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Just an update. Over a year later and heard nothing back. Done an enhanced dbs and nothing recorded
 
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