UPDATE Railcard fraud

[moron]

I was caught by northern rail using a forged railcard. I’d been using it for just under a year when my original one ran out.
I know I’m really stupid and I’m not contesting that I should get into trouble and face the consequences of my selfish actions, I just want to know what those consequences could be.
I would obviously like to settle out of court I just want to know how likely this would be with northern rail.

I’m terrified about getting a criminal record (then don’t do criminal acts, I know, but I’ve been insanely anxious since I got caught and I just want to know if that’s a possibility). I have no prior convictions and I’ve never done anything illegal before. Can someone please advise as to if it looks like I will have to go to court? I spent around £1k using the fake card which makes me think they could come down harder on me if they accessed that information.
Thank you.

 

[furlong]

In what way was it forged? Amended expiry date? Someone else's with your picture? Was this a digital railcard or a paper one? Which type of railcard was it? Did you still qualify for it? (I.e. could you have renewed it legitimately or not?)

 

[moron]

In what way was it forged? Amended expiry date?

Yes the expiry date was altered
When caught I gave them all my correct details

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Jun 2025 ==

In what way was it forged? Amended expiry date? Someone else's with your picture? Was this a digital railcard or a paper one? Which type of railcard was it? Did you still qualify for it? (I.e. could you have renewed it legitimately or not?)

I couldn’t have reapplied as I’ve aged out of it. It’s altered from the date it expired. It’s really stupid and I’m learning that lesson

 

[furlong]

(trying to understand the level of sophistication - you "merely" edited an expiry date on a - digital? - railcard - and nothing more than that? You "altered" it yourself or was anyone else involved?)
(then the other questions to understand the level of loss to the railway - e.g. if you still qualified for the railcard or not)

 

[moron]

Yes the expiry date was altered
When caught I gave them all my correct details

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Jun 2025 ==


I couldn’t have reapplied as I’ve aged out of it. It’s altered from the date it expired. It’s really stupid and I’m learning that lesson

Sorry I didn’t see the edited qs. 25-30 railcard, digital. They scanned it and it showed that it had expired.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Jun 2025 ==

(trying to understand the level of sophistication - you "merely" edited an expiry date on a - digital? - railcard - and nothing more than that? You "altered" it yourself or was anyone else involved?)
(then the other questions to understand the level of loss to the railway - e.g. if you still qualified for the railcard or not)

Yes sorry I changed the expiry year on my old digital railcard 25-30. It ran out July last year. I aged out of being eligible.

 

[30907]

Remarkably, perhaps, and fortunately for you, there is a very good chance that Northern will agree to an out of court settlement.

Based on what we see here, they will investigate your purchase history, and you can expect to be asked for the full (Anytime) fare for every occasion you have cheated, plus an amount towards admin costs.

Until you receive the letter, there isn't much you can do other than (1) start saving
(2) make your own record for the period concerned.

Please come back for further advice when the time comes.

 

[moron]

Sorry I didn’t see the edited qs. 25-30 railcard, digital. They scanned it and it showed that it had expired.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Jun 2025 ==


Yes sorry I changed the expiry year on my old digital railcard 25-30. It ran out July last year. I aged out of being eligible.

So I changed the year of the expiry date on a screenshot. The officer noticed it was a screenshot so she scanned it and it showed it expired July 2024

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Jun 2025 ==

Remarkably, perhaps, and fortunately for you, there is a very good chance that Northern will agree to an out of court settlement.

Based on what we see here, they will investigate your purchase history, and you can expect to be asked for the full (Anytime) fare for every occasion you have cheated, plus an amount towards admin costs.

Until you receive the letter, there isn't much you can do other than (1) start saving
(2) make your own record for the period concerned.

Please come back for further advice when the time comes.

Thank you for your advice. I’m hoping they offer out of court - I’m a very anxious person so I have savings for when something bad happens (or I do something dumb like this)

 

[Fawkes Cat]

I was caught by northern rail using a forged railcard. I’d been using it for just under a year when my original one ran out.
I know I’m really stupid and I’m not contesting that I should get into trouble and face the consequences of my selfish actions, I just want to know what those consequences could be.
I would obviously like to settle out of court I just want to know how likely this would be with northern rail.

I’m terrified about getting a criminal record (then don’t do criminal acts, I know, but I’ve been insanely anxious since I got caught and I just want to know if that’s a possibility). I have no prior convictions and I’ve never done anything illegal before. Can someone please advise as to if it looks like I will have to go to court? I spent around £1k using the fake card which makes me think they could come down harder on me if they accessed that information.
Thank you.

Welcome to the forum!

Our general experience is that railway companies prefer to resolve matters like this outside of court - but very few of the cases we see involve forged railcards, long term use or quite high amounts of money. So you need to prepare yourself for the possibility that on this occasion Northern will be dead set on taking you to court.

It seems to me that there are a couple of things you need to prepare yourself to do that might help:
- get yourself prepared to co-operate with Northern. That means knowing how much is at stake: if you have paid around £1k on tickets then (assuming the card to give a 1/3 discount) Northern will be looking for the full fare back from you (because you travelled without a valid ticket each time, they will want the full fare) so you will be looking at at least £1.5k fares to repay - and note that Northern will probably want the full anytime single fare for each journey, with no reduction for return or off-peak or advance fares, so we could be talking about even more*. There will also be the costs of Northern's investigation - likely to start at £150 and maybe go up from there. So try and make sure you can rapidly access the money that Northern will need to be paid to agree to keep the matter out of court
- you will also need to convince Northern that you will not do this again. That means being very co-operative in replying to any letters they send - and if you are still entitled to buy a railcard, we often suggest that doing so will help demonstrate that you have learnt your lesson
- also, work out what the impact of being taken to court and losing really will be. Although faking a railcard is fraud, and you can go to prison for that, realistically the railway are more likely to prosecute for one of the specific offences around train fares - and those (in practice) don't lead to prison. It's overwhelmingly likely that if the matter goes to court then you will be fined instead. That's still a criminal record, but it's not as bad as prison. There's also the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act which (put briefly) says that fairly minor offences like this won't hang over you for ever. Have a look at https://unlock.org.uk/advice/a-simple-guide-to-the-roa/ (Unlock are a charity who help people who have committed offences: this is their summary page about the Act I just mentioned).

Essentially, you're not in a good place, and it would in practice have been good not to be there in the first place. But it's not the end of the world: keep calm and your life will be able to continue.


*You may want to note that some of the people on this forum think that the railway companies are not entitled to this much money. They may be right. But realistically, this is likely to be the amount that the railway asks for - and you are not in a strong position to argue as you have been caught breaking the law.

 

[furlong]

So on the sophistication question, I think your answer lies at the bottom end of the scale. I'd suggest that means it's not a case where the train company would feel any strong obligation to prosecute rather than settle with you.

We have seen similar cases where train companies have settled out-of-court, essentially disregarding the pre-meditated forgery element and treating it just as a routine ticketless interaction with a history of payments that all need to be put right in settlement.

All you can do now is wait until you are contacted and prepare some savings to "put right" what you have done.

 

[Haywain]

I would obviously like to settle out of court I just want to know how likely this would be with northern rail.

They are highly likely to settle out of court.

I spent around £1k using the fake card which makes me think they could come down harder on me if they accessed that information.

You should assume that they will acess that information. You should also assume that they will be looking for the full single fares for each journey made with those tickets. It would be advisable to gather any evidence you have of having a legitimate railcard prior to using a forged one, as they are going to look further back through your ticket purchasing records.

 

[moron]

Welcome to the forum!

Our general experience is that railway companies prefer to resolve matters like this outside of court - but very few of the cases we see involve forged railcards, long term use or quite high amounts of money. So you need to prepare yourself for the possibility that on this occasion Northern will be dead set on taking you to court.

It seems to me that there are a couple of things you need to prepare yourself to do that might help:
- get yourself prepared to co-operate with Northern. That means knowing how much is at stake: if you have paid around £1k on tickets then (assuming the card to give a 1/3 discount) Northern will be looking for the full fare back from you (because you travelled without a valid ticket each time, they will want the full fare) so you will be looking at at least £1.5k fares to repay - and note that Northern will probably want the full anytime single fare for each journey, with no reduction for return or off-peak or advance fares, so we could be talking about even more*. There will also be the costs of Northern's investigation - likely to start at £150 and maybe go up from there. So try and make sure you can rapidly access the money that Northern will need to be paid to agree to keep the matter out of court
- you will also need to convince Northern that you will not do this again. That means being very co-operative in replying to any letters they send - and if you are still entitled to buy a railcard, we often suggest that doing so will help demonstrate that you have learnt your lesson
- also, work out what the impact of being taken to court and losing really will be. Although faking a railcard is fraud, and you can go to prison for that, realistically the railway are more likely to prosecute for one of the specific offences around train fares - and those (in practice) don't lead to prison. It's overwhelmingly likely that if the matter goes to court then you will be fined instead. That's still a criminal record, but it's not as bad as prison. There's also the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act which (put briefly) says that fairly minor offences like this won't hang over you for ever. Have a look at https://unlock.org.uk/advice/a-simple-guide-to-the-roa/ (Unlock are a charity who help people who have committed offences: this is their summary page about the Act I just mentioned).

Essentially, you're not in a good place, and it would in practice have been good not to be there in the first place. But it's not the end of the world: keep calm and your life will be able to continue.


*You may want to note that some of the people on this forum think that the railway companies are not entitled to this much money. They may be right. But realistically, this is likely to be the amount that the railway asks for - and you are not in a strong position to argue as you have been caught breaking the law.

Thank you for your reply and advice. Is it likely they will ask to hear from me first or could they just immediately send me a court summons/tell me they’re intending to take me to court?
I’ve rebooked the two upcoming tickets I’d booked with the railcard without it, trying to show I’ve been caught and I don’t intend to continue.
I’m just worried a criminal conviction will cause me to lose my job so I’m willing to do whatever to avoid that

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: 27 Jun 2025 ==

They are highly likely to settle out of court.

You should assume that they will acess that information. You should also assume that they will be looking for the full single fares for each journey made with those tickets. It would be advisable to gather any evidence you have of having a legitimate railcard prior to using a forged one, as they are going to look further back through your ticket purchasing records.

Thank you

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Is it likely they will ask to hear from me first or could they just immediately send me a court summons/tell me they’re intending to take me to court?

Except when things go wrong, the railway will always write to ask for your side of the story. So I would say that there's more than a 95% chance that they will write to you. This might be in the next few days, but could take up to six months - a lot depends on their current workload, and on how much investigating they do before writing to you.

 

[Sherby976]

I dont know what anyone else thinks but you could always contact them first which would show at the very least you are looking to engage and resolve the issue.

 

[AlterEgo]

I dont know what anyone else thinks but you could always contact them first which would show at the very least you are looking to engage and resolve the issue.

No, never do this. You don't know what, if any, allegations they might put to you, you risk incriminating yourself unnecessarily, and it's likely they don't even have a case set up yet.

 

[Snow1964]

I dont know what anyone else thinks but you could always contact them first which would show at the very least you are looking to engage and resolve the issue.

Unless you have their case reference numbers it is virtually impossible to contact them and get matched to correct investigation, so usually have to wait. You also don't know what they will claim, so could incriminate yourself on something they were ignoring, so wait until they write to you.

 

[Sherby976]

Fair enough; just a suggestion.

 

[Hadders]

Travelling with an invalid ticket is a criminal offence and Northern are entitled to prosecute you in the Magistrats Court if they want to. Altering a railcard is more serious and could be considered as fraud but while it's theorwtically possible for Northern to prosecute for fraud the reality is we've not seen it for this sort of thing. The good news is they are normally prepared to offer an out of court settlement to people who co-operate with them, and whi haven't cone to their attention before.

What happens next is they will write to you, saying they have received a report, threatening prosecution but asking you for your version of events before they decide how to proceed. It is important that you reply to this letter. I suggest you upload a redacted copy of it in this thread along with your draft reply and forum emmbers will proof read it for you.

If you are offered a settlement expect to have to pay the cost of all the fares avoided at the full Anytime rate, with no credit given for the invalid tickets you've purchased. In addition they will charge an admin fee, typically £150.

 

[moron]

Thanks everyone for their replies.
I’ve now received the following letter,
Would anyone be able to point me in the right direction of how to reply? I of course want to settle out of court, I’ve bought replacements of future tickets without a railcard. I had a real railcard until July 2024.
(Have covered up my name address and the date I was stopped everything else is there)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Saturday at 15:59 ==

Letter reads:
*Prosecutions unit - altered ticket pass, produced an expired railcard*
Dear x
On x date at x time you were spoken to by an authorised member of staff about the above concerbs
Request for explanation
Before northern trains limited proceeds further with its investigations, we would like to give you the opportunity of responding with your explanation concerning it with any accompanying evidence. Please complete the bottom section of this letter and if you wish to make any comments please do so on the reverse. Only written mitigation will be accepted to the above address and/or to (email address). Alternatively please call the customer experience centre on (number) who can write an email for you. In your email you must include full details notice number and any evidence.
If we do not receive a response or you are unable to explain your actions adequately we may decide to take further action and seek a prosecution. Should legal proceedings begin, and you are subsequently found or plead guilty, you would receive a criminal conviction. In addition the court may decide to fine you up to £1k and assign you costs or compensation that you will have to pay.
If we do not receive a response within 21 days the matter may progress without your comments being considered.

 

[WesternLancer]

Thanks everyone for their replies.
I’ve now received the following letter,
Would anyone be able to point me in the right direction of how to reply? I of course want to settle out of court, I’ve bought replacements of future tickets without a railcard. I had a real railcard until July 2024.
(Have covered up my name address and the date I was stopped everything else is there)

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Saturday at 15:59 ==

Letter reads:
*Prosecutions unit - altered ticket pass, produced an expired railcard*
Dear x
On x date at x time you were spoken to by an authorised member of staff about the above concerbs
Request for explanation
Before northern trains limited proceeds further with its investigations, we would like to give you the opportunity of responding with your explanation concerning it with any accompanying evidence. Please complete the bottom section of this letter and if you wish to make any comments please do so on the reverse. Only written mitigation will be accepted to the above address and/or to (email address). Alternatively please call the customer experience centre on (number) who can write an email for you. In your email you must include full details notice number and any evidence.
If we do not receive a response or you are unable to explain your actions adequately we may decide to take further action and seek a prosecution. Should legal proceedings begin, and you are subsequently found or plead guilty, you would receive a criminal conviction. In addition the court may decide to fine you up to £1k and assign you costs or compensation that you will have to pay.
If we do not receive a response within 21 days the matter may progress without your comments being considered.

Basically you need to write to them. Apologise. Make it clear you understand the seriousness of what you have done. Make it clear you will not do this again and ask if the would be kind enough to let you pay what you owe without involving the courts.

Post a draft of your reply here for checking before you send it.

 

[30907]

Basically you need to write to them. Apologise. Make it clear you understand the seriousness of what you have done. Make it clear you will not do this again and ask if the would be kind enough to let you pay what you owe without involving the courts.

Post a draft of your reply here for checking before you send it.

Just to that Hadders regularly posts a suggested framework for a reply, which obviously you will have to adapt, but Northern (like others) are generally prepared to settle out of court if you engage withvthem.

 

[moron]

I’ve written a draft letter if anyone would be so kind as to give their feedback I’d really appreciate it - especially regarding the part with the past railcards - I thought it was important to include evidence of prior railcards in case they access my purchase history and see years of tickets purchased with a railcard and assume they’re all fraudulent.
Thank you


Dear Sirs

I write in relation to incident (ref) in which I was stopped on (date) at (time). I thank you for the correspondence received (date) and the opportunity to respond.

I accept full responsibility and deeply regret my actions. I understand the seriousness of these bad decisions and the impact it has on the network and other passengers. I have felt the full weight of the consequences and am incredibly anxious to put things right.

Since being stopped I have ensured to pay full fares, and have re-booked outstanding incorrect tickets with the correct amounts. I enclose prior receipts for railcards purchased, which last expired July 2024 after which I was no longer eligible. This is of course no excuse and I only enclose to point to my legitimate purchase history. I am committed to learning from this mistake and to never doing anything like this again.

If it is possible to resolve this matter without court proceedings I would be incredibly grateful for the opportunity to do so. I am willing to pay any outstanding fares along with administrative costs incurred to Northern during this investigation.

I completely understand the severity of my actions and the importance of maintaining a fair system for all passengers. I am genuinely very sorry.

== Doublepost prevention - post automatically merged: Saturday at 23:34 ==

I’ve written a draft letter if anyone would be so kind as to give their feedback I’d really appreciate it - especially regarding the part with the past railcards - I thought it was important to include evidence of prior railcards in case they access my purchase history and see years of tickets purchased with a railcard and assume they’re all fraudulent.
Thank you


Dear Sirs

I write in relation to incident (ref) in which I was stopped on (date) at (time). I thank you for the correspondence received (date) and the opportunity to respond.

I accept full responsibility and deeply regret my actions. I understand the seriousness of these bad decisions and the impact it has on the network and other passengers. I have felt the full weight of the consequences and am incredibly anxious to put things right.

Since being stopped I have ensured to pay full fares, and have re-booked outstanding incorrect tickets with the correct amounts. I enclose prior receipts for railcards purchased, which last expired July 2024 after which I was no longer eligible. This is of course no excuse and I only enclose to point to my legitimate purchase history. I am committed to learning from this mistake and to never doing anything like this again.

If it is possible to resolve this matter without court proceedings I would be incredibly grateful for the opportunity to do so. I am willing to pay any outstanding fares along with administrative costs incurred to Northern during this investigation.

I completely understand the severity of my actions and the importance of maintaining a fair system for all passengers. I am genuinely very sorry.

Also should I say I have no criminal convictions or is that not relevant

 

[styles]

Also should I say I have no criminal convictions or is that not relevant

I'll let others comment on the letter, as I'm not very experienced with it. But they won't really care about your existing criminal record, or lack thereof. If someone were a particularly egregious example of a repeat offender for fare evasion it may factor in slightly, but in general it's not their concern.

 

[WesternLancer]

Also should I say I have no criminal convictions or is that not relevant

It’s not relevant.

 

[Hadders]

I think your draft letter is ok. No need to mention lack of previous criminal convictions.

 

[moron]

Final update: they have responded to and asked me to pay the full fare for the journey I was caught with the railcard (under 20£) plus £25 admin fee. I will take the anxiety I felt over this as a lesson to never be so stupid again.