Waiting for letter

[optimuspr1me]

Hi all,

Am waiting for a letter from GWR following being stopped by a ROI late December, but still haven’t received anything.

Concerned that it’s gone to the wrong place. Is this a normal amount of time to wait for a letter? Would anyone advise trying to contact the company directly to double check if there’s any update / progress or engaging with a lawyer to do so?

Don’t want to catalyse any sort of investigation.

Best

 

[30907]

Hi all,

Am waiting for a letter from GWR following being stopped by a ROI late December, but still haven’t received anything.

Concerned that it’s gone to the wrong place. Is this a normal amount of time to wait for a letter? Would anyone advise trying to contact the company directly to double check if there’s any update / progress or engaging with a lawyer to do so?

Generally speaking, the advice is to keep schtumm

1. GW have up to 6 months to decide to prosecute. They will use that time to check your purchase history - you will know if that is going to throw up something, but even then, GW prefer to settle out of court.

2. Unless you have a case reference number or similar, contacting them is unlikely to be helpful. (What paperwork were you given at the time, and what information did the RPI get from you?)

3. Have you changed address, or are you likely to before 6 months is up? In any case, it is very important to be able to access your snail-mail.

I would certainly not contact a lawyer at this stage, unless there are a lot of worms in your proverbial can

 

[ikcdab]

unless you have a reason to think that a letter has gone to the wrong address, such as you have since moved house or you gave them an incomplete or false address, then you just need to wait. If you have moved house, then it might be possible to contact the new occupants. If you gave them a false address then it will be worth trying tio contact them to correct this.

 

[optimuspr1me]

Thank you!

So not worth contacting to check on case? I have no reference number etc, and no reason to believe the letter has gone to the wrong place but am aware the fastest route to an unfavourable outcome is to miss letters. They have my details incl email address and postal address.

In theory, it may be taking the TOC some time to look into this case re purchase history etc but this seems an abnormal amount of time.

Given other threads I have read, they would probably look to prosecute and wouldn’t sweep this under the rug & (hopefully) settle out of court so I would expect a letter.

 

[WesternLancer]

Thank you!

So not worth contacting to check on case? I have no reference number etc, and no reason to believe the letter has gone to the wrong place but am aware the fastest route to an unfavourable outcome is to miss letters. They have my details incl email address and postal address.

In theory, it may be taking the TOC some time to look into this case re purchase history etc but this seems an abnormal amount of time.

Given other threads I have read, they would probably look to prosecute and wouldn’t sweep this under the rug & (hopefully) settle out of court so I would expect a letter.

You may find it helpful to read the GWR pdf document on their Revenue Protection Policy which you can download from GWR website.

 

[ChewChewTrain]

Remember that if a court case somehow goes ahead without your knowledge, then (as long as you were genuinely unaware) you can get a conviction “unwound” by making a statutory declaration.

So I agree with others that it’s best to just sit tight and not worry about the matter for now.

 

[Hadders]

Welcome to the forum!

I don’t advise contacting GWR at this stage. Prosecutions Departments deal with thousands of cases at a time, yours is just one of them and you will have to wait your turn.

It sounds as though your case is complex, if so this will take longer especially if they are contacting Trainline for details of your ticket purchasing history.

We have recently seen cases with Chiltern take five months for an initial letter to be sent. Different train company but it gives an idea.

 

[optimuspr1me]

Hello,

Checking in here as still no letter received. There’s just over 3 weeks until the 6 month period is up. Do I still just sit tight?

Again, definitely gave the correct details.

Have we seen this happen in any other circumstance? I knew it would take a little longer than normal given a probable review of purchase history but ..

 

[Brissle Girl]

If you were stopped “late December” (first post) then they still have another two months to start proceedings, not three weeks.

 

[optimuspr1me]

Oh you’re totally right, thank you

 

[optimuspr1me]

Hello,

I was stopped in December. Long story short, issue was fare evasion over about 1.5 months (using incorrect railcard.)

This case isn’t straightforward and am sure the TOC will have wanted to look through trainline history.

It’s now been 5 months since I was stopped & cautioned, and told I’d be contacted. Appreciate TOC have 6 months to reach out via letter, and I gave the correct details.

However, am finding it very difficult having this hang over me - albeit all my own fault but given the extensive research I’ve done, I’m pretty sure that with the correct approach I’m likely to be able to obtain an out of court settlement.

Rather than continue to wait for the letter (it seems GWR don’t have a backlog atm?) I’d like to proactively settle this case. If the letter doesn’t arrive in 6 months, it won’t put my mind at ease as in my mind it won’t be settled.

Any suggestions in going about this would be really good. I have no reference number, all they took was address and I *think* email address. Happy to contact a solicitor to help on this too. Can’t deal with this hanging over me anymore.

Thanks very much in advance.

Update

Contacted Manak for a consultation who said there’s no point in reaching out directly, need to sit tight and wait for letter.

My concern is that letter has got lost: solicitor advice was that if that were the case I’d know as I’d be automatically convicted (as a result of not paying potential fine) and I’d be notified of that, so nothing has been missed at this point.

 

[Brissle Girl]

If you’ve consulted a solicitor, and Manak do seem to get good results from the instances we’ve seen, then I would take their advice.

 

[Deafdoggie]

Not wanting to sound harsh, but GWR may see part of your punishment as making you sweat it out, panicking, for the maximum amount of time they can.
Or, they've accidentally lost you case and you've got away with it.
Either way, there's nothing to be gained by contacting them. If a solicitor has told you the same, just sit tight.