URGENT, PLEASE HELP advice for Notice of Intended Prosecution CHILTERN RAILWAYS

[Pablo84]

Hello guys,

I hope you’re all well and happy Friday to you all

I really need some urgent advice regarding my Notice of Intended Prosecution letter I received today from CHILTERN, now I’m completely in the wrong for my actions and I accept this, basically I’ve been buying children’s tickets (16-17 year old) to London in the hope of not getting caught but of course I did get caught hence the letter I received, once again I totally understand this is wrong and there’s no excuse for my actions and it comes across a very low but I would really like to find a way out of this situation without the need of any court action or a criminal record, here is the letter I received:

We are in receipt of a report, which advises that on Monday 26th August 2024, a person giving your name and address details was spoken to by railway revenue protection staff in connection with a journey between Oxford Parkway and Marylebone, at the time you failed to show a valid rail ticket for the journey that you were making or had made.

Following you being spoken to; the Economic Crime, Fraud & Prosecutions Unit submitted a data access request Under Schedule 2 Part

1 Paragraph 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR Article 6 (1) (d), to various rail ticket retailers, which has revealed that you may have avoided the correct rail fare on other occasions.

The purpose of this letter is to advise you of the report and of any action that may follow from it, and to provide you with the opportunity to inform us of any mitigation that you may wish to be considered. This should be sent via email to [email protected]

The report of this incident indicates that in the absence of a satisfactory explanation, evidence does exist to warrant a prosecution in accordance with the current legislation. These considerations may include whether any charge should allege an offence against Railway Byelaws (2005), or the Regulation of Railways Act 1889.

You are therefore advised to seek out independent legal advice from a Solicitor trained in criminal law and who is registered with the Law Society. It would also be an advantage if they have knowledge of rail fare law, as this is a specialised area.

The company considers this a serious matter, and if we do not hear from you within 14 days of the date of this letter, this matter will be passed to our Prosecuting Authority with a view to obtaining a Summons to a Magistrates Court hearing, this may be issued without further reference to you.

In my situation how would be best to respond? Any advice or recommendations would be really appreciated, please I’d very grateful as this is very stressful especially around this time of the year but of course my fault totally

Thank you so much for your help

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Welcome to the forum!

There's broadly two routes open to you:

- get back to Chiltern, confirming that everything is true. This will mean that you need to pay all the train fares that you dodged, plus an admin fee (think £150 for the admin, although it can be more, plus an anytime single ticket for each journey that you didn't pay the right fare for)
- don't fully co-operate: in that case Chiltern will likely take you to court for the journey where they caught you as they can easily prove that you were fare dodging on that time. That will mean going to court (n.b. even if everything is done by post it counts as going to court) where on what you have told us you will be convicted and have to pay a fine plus various other costs. This will give a you a criminal record - which doesn't last for ever, but as we are seeing in today's news can come back and bite you many years later.

In short, you probably can't walk away from this without pain. Hopefully other people will be along shortly with exact suggestions of what you can do.

 

[Titfield]

Forum Expert @Hadders advice may be helpful here:

It is important you reply to this letter and I suggest a short, concise reply mentioning the following:

- That you are sorry for what has happened
- What you have learned from the incident
- That you are keen to settle the matter without the need for court action
- Offer to pay the outstanding fares and the train company's administrative costs in dealing with the matter

Chiltern are usually prepared to offer an administrative settlement (commonly known as an out of court settlement) to people who engage with the process and who haven't come to their attention before. We cannot guarantee this and Chiltern are within their rights to prosecute you in the magistrates court if they want to.

If you are offered a settlement expect to have to pay the value of the outstanding fares at the full Anytime rate with no credit given for the tickets you did purchase. In addition you will have to pay an admin fee, typically around £150. You will need to be in a position to pay the settlement in full within a few days of it being offered - payment in installments is not normally allowed. Paying an out of court settlement might appear to be a fine, but it isn't and you won't have a criminal record as a result of accepting one.

Feel free to post a copy of the letter of your draft reply in this thread and forum members will be happy to proof read it for you.

 

[Pablo84]

Thank @Fawkes Cat and @Titfield for your advice and guidance, yes I definitely don’t want to ignore this and will definitely reply to them, as I don’t really want to go down the court and criminal record route and would rather settle this outside as I said it’s due to my own stupidity but will wait for any additional advice/guidance from @Hadders before proceeding

Once again thank you guys, your responses are greatly appreciated especially in such a stressful time

Cheers

 

[Titfield]

Thank @Fawkes Cat and @Titfield for your advice and guidance, yes I definitely don’t want to ignore this and will definitely reply to them, as I don’t really want to go down the court and criminal record route and would rather settle this outside as I said it’s due to my own stupidity but will wait for any additional advice/guidance from @Hadders before proceeding

Once again thank you guys, your responses are greatly appreciated especially in such a stressful time

Cheers

If you use the search facility in the top right hand corner using the term "chiltern" and member "hadders" you will see some threads that give a good indication of how such cases have played out previously.

You dont have a choice in how Chiltern decide to proceed but how you respond will significantly influence the choice they make. Normally cases only go to Court when the individual involved has failed to engage or is not contrite or has been aggressive to staff or has continued in fare evasion despite previous action being taken. One may think that "industrial scale" fare evasion would end up in court but this has been shown not always to be the case.

 

[Pablo84]

Thank you @Titfield

Hi guys @Hadders @Titfield @Fawkes Cat or anyone else who can advise, this is reply I drafted to send back to CHILTERN, I didn’t want to make it so long and get straight to the point without looking for sympathy, can you let me know your thoughts on this
Please:


Dear Sir/Madam,

I am emailing you in response to a letter which I received from Chiltern Railways dated the 25th November 2024. This was a Notice of Intended Prosecution letter and I received it on Friday 29th November 2024. It is in relation to an incident on the 26 August 2024. The letter has the customer reference:

Firstly I just wanted to say how sorry I am for my actions. I understand that this is a big problem for Chiltern Railways and i apologise for contributing to it.

I have fully learned from the past and I have not had any further incidents on Chiltern Railways services since. I am truly sorry for this but I have since seen the errors of my ways and learned from this incident. I was fully compliant with the rail fare protection officer at the time and want to rectify this.

I take full responsibility for my actions and I want to know if this matter could be settled without the need for further court action. I am happy and willing to pay the outstanding amount for the fare in question and any costs which Chiltern incurred having to investigate the matter in order to rectify my mistake.

Please do not hesitate to get into contact with me.

Kind Regards,

Please let me know your thoughts, as I’m very keen to respond to them as soon as possible

Thanks again guys

 

[Pablo84]

Thank you @Titfield

Hi guys @Hadders @Titfield @Fawkes Cat or anyone else who can advise, this is reply I drafted to send back to CHILTERN, I didn’t want to make it so long and get straight to the point without looking for sympathy, can you let me know your thoughts on this
Please:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am emailing you in response to a letter which I received from Chiltern Railways dated the 25th November 2024. This was a Notice of Intended Prosecution letter and I received it on Friday 29th November 2024. It is in relation to an incident on the 26 August 2024. The letter has the customer reference:

Firstly I just wanted to say how sorry I am for my actions. I understand that this is a big problem for Chiltern Railways and i apologise for contributing to it.

I have fully learned from the past and I have not had any further incidents on Chiltern Railways services since. I am truly sorry for this but I have since seen the errors of my ways and learned from this incident. I was fully compliant with the rail fare protection officer at the time and want to rectify this.

I take full responsibility for my actions and I want to know if this matter could be settled without the need for further court action. I am happy and willing to pay the outstanding amount for the fare in question and any costs which Chiltern incurred having to investigate the matter in order to rectify my mistake.

Please do not hesitate to get into contact with me.

Kind Regards,

Please let me know your thoughts, as I’m very keen to respond to them as soon as possible

Thanks again guys

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Thank you @Titfield

Hi guys @Hadders @Titfield @Fawkes Cat or anyone else who can advise, this is reply I drafted to send back to CHILTERN, I didn’t want to make it so long and get straight to the point without looking for sympathy, can you let me know your thoughts on this
Please:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am emailing you in response to a letter which I received from Chiltern Railways dated the 25th November 2024. This was a Notice of Intended Prosecution letter and I received it on Friday 29th November 2024. It is in relation to an incident on the 26 August 2024. The letter has the customer reference:

Firstly I just wanted to say how sorry I am for my actions. I understand that this is a big problem for Chiltern Railways and i apologise for contributing to it.

I have fully learned from the past and I have not had any further incidents on Chiltern Railways services since. I am truly sorry for this but I have since seen the errors of my ways and learned from this incident. I was fully compliant with the rail fare protection officer at the time and want to rectify this.

I take full responsibility for my actions and I want to know if this matter could be settled without the need for further court action. I am happy and willing to pay the outstanding amount for the fare in question and any costs which Chiltern incurred having to investigate the matter in order to rectify my mistake.

Please do not hesitate to get into contact with me.

Kind Regards,

Please let me know your thoughts, as I’m very keen to respond to them as soon as possible

Thanks again guys

You don't really seem to have addressed this part of Chiltern's original letter:

Following you being spoken to; the Economic Crime, Fraud & Prosecutions Unit submitted a data access request Under Schedule 2 Part

1 Paragraph 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR Article 6 (1) (d), to various rail ticket retailers, which has revealed that you may have avoided the correct rail fare on other occasions.

I think Chiltern will notice this, and decide that you're not really being honest with them. That's a good way to end up in court.

 

[Pablo84]

Ok thanks for the advice on this @Fawkes Cat do you think this sounds better now:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am emailing you in response to a letter which I received from Chiltern Railways dated the 25th November 2024. This was a Notice of Intended Prosecution letter and I received it on Friday 29th November 2024. It is in relation to an incident on the 26 August 2024. The letter has the customer reference:

Firstly I just wanted to say how sorry I am for my actions relating to the incident in August and also the following: 1 Paragraph 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR Article 6 (1) (d), to various rail ticket retailers, which has revealed that you may have avoided the correct rail fare on other occasions I understand that this is a big problem for Chiltern Railways and i apologise for contributing to it.

I have fully learned from the past and I have not had any further incidents on Chiltern Railways services since. I am truly sorry for this but I have since seen the errors of my ways and learned from this incident. I was fully compliant with the rail fare protection officer at the time and want to rectify this.

I take full responsibility for my actions and I want to know if this matter could be settled without the need for further court action. I am happy and willing to pay the outstanding amount for the fare in question and any costs which Chiltern incurred having to investigate the matter in order to rectify my mistake.

Please do not hesitate to get into contact with me.

Kind Regards

 

[30907]

Comments follow

Firstly I just wanted to say how sorry I am for my actions. I understand that this is a big problem for Chiltern Railways and i apologise for contributing to it.

Not only for Chiltern - other operators too. And call "this" by its name (fare evasion, cheating, whatever) not "this" or "Paragraph 1...".

I have fully learned from the past and I have not had any further incidents on Chiltern Railways services since.

Or on any other line?

I am truly sorry for this but I have since seen the errors of my ways and learned from this incident.

How have you learned? Have you bought a 16-25 railcard for example to reduce your costs so you can travel more by train?

I was fully compliant with the rail fare protection officer at the time and want to rectify this.

Irrelevant really

I take full responsibility for my actions and I want to know if this matter could be settled without the need for further court action. I am happy and willing

Understandably - but you need to ask CT if they are willing to consider settling, as it's up to them.

mistake.

It wasn't a mistake, try another word.

Also, assume that CT have a fair idea of how many times you have cheated, and will be asking for more than the one fare. No need to tell them how many times, but don't pretend!

 

[Pablo84]

Thank you for your advice @30907, I’ve taken on board the points you’ve raised, do you think this is better now to send to them?

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am emailing you in response to a letter which I received from Chiltern Railways dated the 25th November 2024. This was a Notice of Intended Prosecution letter and I received it on Friday 29th November 2024. It is in relation to an incident on the 26 August 2024. The letter has the customer reference:

Firstly I just wanted to say how sorry I am for my actions of fare evasion relating to the incident in August and also the following: 1 Paragraph 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR Article 6 (1) (d), to various rail ticket retailers, which has revealed that you may have avoided the correct rail fare on other occasions I understand that this is a big problem for Chiltern Railways and other operators too and i apologise for contributing to it.

I have fully learned from the past and I will not do this again when I take future train journeys with Chiltern or any other operator and also I’ve not had any further incidents on Chiltern Railways services or any other line since. I am truly sorry for this but I have since seen the errors of my ways and learned from this incident and it won’t be repeated again in the future. I was fully compliant with the rail fare protection officer at the time and want to rectify this.

I take full responsibility for my actions and I want to ask if you would be willing to settle this without the need for further court action? I am happy and willing to pay the outstanding amount for the fare in question and any costs which Chiltern incurred having to investigate the matter in order to rectify my wrong doings.

Please do not hesitate to get into contact with me.

Kind Regards

 

[AlterEgo]

Firstly I just wanted to say how sorry I am for my actions of fare evasion relating to the incident in August and also the following: 1 Paragraph 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR Article 6 (1) (d), to various rail ticket retailers, which has revealed that you may have avoided the correct rail fare on other occasions I understand that this is a big problem for Chiltern Railways and other operators too and i apologise for contributing to it.

Does this sound especially sincere to you? What, exactly have you done? Chiltern will want you to take accountability for it.

 

[Pablo84]

Thanks @AlterEgo I’ve made a slight adjustment as per below, do you think this will be good enough to send now?

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am emailing you in response to a letter which I received from Chiltern Railways dated the 25th November 2024. This was a Notice of Intended Prosecution letter and I received it on Friday 29th November 2024. It is in relation to an incident on the 26 August 2024. The letter has the customer reference:

Firstly I just wanted to say how sorry I am for my actions of fare evasion relating to the incident in August and also the following: 1 Paragraph 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR Article 6 (1) (d), to various rail ticket retailers, which has revealed that you may have avoided the correct rail fare on other occasions I take full accountability of my actions relating to Fare Evasion, I understand that this is a big problem for Chiltern Railways and other operators too and i apologise for contributing to it.

I have fully learned from the past and I will not do this again when I take future train journeys with Chiltern or any other operator and also I’ve not had any further incidents on Chiltern Railways services or any other line since. I am truly sorry for this but I have since seen the errors of my ways and learned from this incident and it won’t be repeated again in the future. I was fully compliant with the rail fare protection officer at the time and want to rectify this.

I take full responsibility for my actions and I want to ask if you would be willing to settle this without the need for further court action? I am happy and willing to pay the outstanding amount for the fare in question and any costs which Chiltern incurred having to investigate the matter in order to rectify my wrong doings.

Please do not hesitate to get into contact with me.

Kind Regards

 

[AlterEgo]

Firstly I just wanted to say how sorry I am for my actions of fare evasion relating to the incident in August and also the following: 1 Paragraph 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR Article 6 (1) (d), to various rail ticket retailers, which has revealed that you may have avoided the correct rail fare on other occasions I take full accountability of my actions relating to Fare Evasion

What actions? You can't just drop their text in there - this isn't how people write letters. Admit to evading the fare on other occasions and show that you will cooperate.

Does this sound like someone who is taking full accountability?

 

[Pablo84]

Hi @AlterEgo thanks once again, I’ve updated this now and confessed my fare evasion, do you think this will be ok to send now?

Dear Sir/Madam,



I am emailing you in response to a letter which I received from Chiltern Railways dated the 25th November 2024. This was a Notice of Intended Prosecution letter and I received it on Friday 29th November 2024. It is in relation to an incident on the 26 August 2024. The letter has the customer reference:

Firstly I just wanted to say how sorry I am for my actions of fare evasion relating to the incident in August and also regarding the following: 1 Paragraph 2 of the Data Protection Act 2018 and GDPR Article 6 (1) (d), to various rail ticket retailers, which has revealed that you may have avoided the correct rail fare on other occasions i am guilty of this and I admit to evading fares on previous occasions and I am willing to fully cooperate, I take full accountability of my actions relating to Fare Evasion, I understand that this is a big problem for Chiltern Railways and other operators too and i apologise for contributing to it.

I have fully learned from the past and I will not do this again when I take future train journeys with Chiltern or any other operator and also I’ve not had any further incidents on Chiltern Railways services or any other line since. I am truly sorry for this but I have since seen the errors of my ways and learned from this incident and it won’t be repeated again in the future. I was fully compliant with the rail fare protection officer at the time and want to rectify this.

I take full responsibility for my actions and I want to ask if you would be willing to settle this without the need for further court action? I am happy and willing to pay the outstanding amount for the fare in question and any costs which Chiltern incurred having to investigate the matter in order to rectify my wrong doings.

Please do not hesitate to get into contact with me.

 

[Hadders]

If you want to keep the matter out of court then you need to co-operate with Chiltern, i.e. 'fess up' to what you've been doing.

Paragraph 2 would read better if you cut out the bit about 'Paragrapg 2 of the Data Protection Act...' and instead said something like 'I've researched my online ticket purchasing account and believe I've purchased child tickets on xx occasions since xx/xx/xx'

 

[Pablo84]

Thanks @Hadders yes I want to keep this out of court and fess up to my actions, thanks for you advice on this, I’ll draft this now and send it to them

Hi @Hadders is this better, I actually checked my account and can’t seem to find any tickets which were child, so I can’t locate exact dates, as I don’t always do this but I’ve definitely done this numerous times, only thing I can find are some tickets dating back to 2022-2024, would this be ok:

Firstly I just wanted to say how sorry I am for my actions of fare evasion and all the inconvenience it has caused relating to the incident in August, I also admit to evading fares on previous occasions and I am willing to fully cooperate, I take full accountability of my actions relating to Fare Evasion, I understand that this is a big problem for Chiltern Railways and other operators too and i apologise for contributing to it.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

Thanks @Hadders yes I want to keep this out of court and fess up to my actions, thanks for you advice on this, I’ll draft this now and send it to them

Hi @Hadders is this better, I actually checked my account and can’t seem to find any tickets which were child, so I can’t locate exact dates, as I don’t always do this but I’ve definitely done this numerous times, only thing I can find are some tickets dating back to 2022-2024, would this be ok:

Firstly I just wanted to say how sorry I am for my actions of fare evasion and all the inconvenience it has caused relating to the incident in August, I also admit to evading fares on previous occasions and I am willing to fully cooperate, I take full accountability of my actions relating to Fare Evasion, I understand that this is a big problem for Chiltern Railways and other operators too and i apologise for contributing to it.

The trouble with saying

, I also admit to evading fares on previous occasions

without saying how often you did it is that you then have no choice but to accept whatever amount the railway says. So think a bit harder about how often you have fare dodged:

- do you have bank/credit card statements that show when you bought child tickets?
- do you know when you started doing this (think hard - it could be longer ago than you first imagine)? How often do you do this (every day, once a week, a couple of times a month, every time you went to work/college)? Now add up how often this suggests. It will be an estimate, but if it is much the same as the number the railway has come up with (so maybe they think you have fare dodged 50 times and your numbers come up as 45) then I think there's a good chance that they will be happy, as you have made a realistic effort to get the right answer and admit to everything that you have done.

 

[Pablo84]

@Fawkes Cat I only ever did this when I travelled to
London and on a few occasions Reading which was very often at all really, also I don’t need seem to be able to locate any records of this, the only thing I can go by is the few emails I have, which is from 2021, if I say something like from 2021-to the most recent incident, what that be ok? As I really can’t remember when I start doing it, but an estimated guess would be from around 3 years ago, would that be ok?

 

[Fawkes Cat]

@Fawkes Cat I only ever did this when I travelled to
London and on a few occasions Reading which was very often at all really, also I don’t need seem to be able to locate any records of this, the only thing I can go by is the few emails I have, which is from 2021, if I say something like from 2021-to the most recent incident, what that be ok? As I really can’t remember when I start doing it, but an estimated guess would be from around 3 years ago, would that be ok?

Only you will know the truth, and that's what you need to say. Try to see if you can come up with numbers of about how often you did it, and over how long a period. Then you can write something like

'I estimate that since <whenever you started> I have not paid the right fare on <however many> journeys from Oxford Parkway to Reading and<however many> journeys from Oxford Parkway to Paddington.'

 

[MotCO]

Reading your latest draft, it seems to be lacking in emotion and does not seem to be very contrite. You may not naturally be an emotional person, but you have got to convince the TOC that you realise you have wronged big time. They hold all the cards - you have got to persuade them that you realise that what you did was very wrong (effectively it is theft), and that you have learnt your lesson and won't reoffend. Buy a railcard if you qualify and it suits your travelling arrangements (and make a note of its expiry date - no-one else will remind you).

Sorry if this sounds harsh, but you have got to give it your best shot, and I think it still falls short.

 

[Hadders]

The lkatest version reads much better.

Your online ticket purchasing account should show your transaction history. You might need to log on via the website rather than through the app.

 

[Pablo84]

Hi guys and @Hadders thanks for all the advice, so I sent my email to them on Sunday night, I know it’s only been a few days but I haven’t heard anything back yet, does anyone know if Chiltern will respond back to my email and if so how long this usually takes or do they tend to respond via post?

Thanks

 

[Pablo84]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all your advice recently, so I sent my email to Chiltern regarding Notice of Intended Prosecution on Sunday night, I know it’s only been a few days but I haven’t heard anything back yet, does anyone know if Chiltern will respond back to my email and if so how long this usually takes or do they tend to respond via post?

Also would be worth sending another/chaser email to see if they’ve received my email or ask for an update? Or does this come around as rather pushy and annoy them?

Sorry I know it hasn’t been long at all, just a bit nervous about it all

Thanks

 

[signed]

The rough response time that we have seen here is a month time

But, as an additional protection, do make sure to also mail with delivery signature (Signed For at Royal Mail), your answer

Also would be worth sending another/chaser email to see if they’ve received my email or ask for an update? Or does this come around as rather pushy and annoy them?

Don't, let them get back to you

 

[Pablo84]

The rough response time that we have seen here is a month time

But, as an additional protection, do make sure to also mail with delivery signature (Signed For at Royal Mail), your answer

Don't, let them get back to you

@signed thanks for your advice, do you mean to send them the copy of the email I sent to them as a letter via post? As I can’t actually find a address for them just the email contact?

Can anyone help

Thanks

 

[signed]

thanks for your advice, do you mean to send them the copy of the email I sent to them as a letter via post?

Yes

As I can’t actually find a address for them just the email contact?

How did you recieve the letter? By email?

If a letter, there should be the address in the header

 

[WesternLancer]

@signed thanks for your advice, do you mean to send them the copy of the email I sent to them as a letter via post? As I can’t actually find a address for them just the email contact?

Can anyone help

Thanks

does the letter you mention in post #1 not have a postal address on it anywhere?

If so that is where you should post a copy, sending it tracked postage via a local post office so you can prove it arrived with them if you ever need to do so.

Interestingly page 7 of their official document on revenue protection (which you should read generally anyway) says you can only e-mail them about change of address etc - which clearly contradicts the instruction you included in post #1....but then that would not be the first time the railway manages to send out confusing information!

This document:

https://www.chilternrailways.co.uk/sites/default/files/2024-02/Revenue%20Enforcement%20%20Prosecutions%20Policy%202023.pdf

as per this extract:

Q. I have had my details taken and been told the ECFU will be contacting me, but I have not heard anything?

A. We are a very busy team, and it can be a little while before we receive the inspector's reports and process them. If you are concerned you may have missed some correspondence, for example if you have moved address, you can e-mail the Economic Crime & Fraud Team at [email protected] with the details you gave the inspector at the time and the date you made the journey, and we can look into this further for you.
It is vitally important that you inform us of any address changes, as it is likely we will be sending letters to you via the address provided to the member of staff at the time. If correspondence is not replied to, this may mean that court action to recover any outstanding fare is taken.

PLEASE NOTE – This mailbox is only used to inform us of a new correspondence address or sending through evidence of a valid ticket or railcard at the time the journey was undertaken, this email address cannot be used to make any appeal or mitigation.

 

[Pablo84]

Hi @signed and @WesternLancer

There is an address on the letter but just this:

Freepost
Chiltern Railways
Economic Crime, Fraud & Prosecutions Unit
Email: [email protected]

But no postcode address etc

So not sure how I would send this?

Thanks

 

[signed]

So not sure how I would send this?

It's Freepost, so you just write the address exactly as shown and put it into a Royal Mail mailbox, no need for a stamp either.