Will thameslink investigate me for past fare evasion?

[yule28465]

Hi all, apologies if I have posted this twice as I tried to post this once before but I’m not sure where it’s gone!

Here is my situation:

Back at the start of 2023, when I was 19, I started travelling between London to Cambridge 1-2 times a month. I bought these tickets on the Trainline app with a 16-17 railcard (which I obviously did not have, as I was 19) to save money. Altogether there were 6 journeys, and then I was caught by an inspector without a railcard. When he asked for my details, I gave him the correct ones other than the fact that I said that my year of birth was 2 years earlier as I had panicked. I ended up receiving a penalty fare of £70 and I paid this quickly. They did not find out about the other 5 journeys I had made without a railcard. This was in June 2023.

After this, I bought an 18-25 railcard on the same trainline account, and paid for a few journeys. However, it got too expensive after a while and I physically could not afford it, so from January 2024 I stupidly ended up short-ticketing or refunding around 7 tickets until June 2024. By short-ticketing I mean buying tickets to the next station after my home station in London, then buying tickets from Cambridge to Cambridge north so that I could get in and out of the barriers.

Then I decided that what I was doing was (obviously) completely wrong and stopped fare evading entirely, and now I could afford to pay the full fare too.

Since then, I have not evaded any fares, and have travelled a few times to Cambridge North on my account. However, I am still using the same account and railcard as the one I used to evade the fares.

My railcard is also linked to my oyster card which I use truthfully throughout London 3-4x a week - spending on average £35 a week with it. I usually travel with thameslink throughout the week.

I still deeply regret what I did and wish I had never done it, it’s not right and is basically theft, then I would complain about train fares going up…

I was wondering if anyone thinks it’s likely that I will be investigated for past fare evasion, even though now I use my railcard truthfully every other day and pay all my fares to Cambridge?

If so, I understand I could have an out-of court settlement, but how likely is this with Thameslink?

Also now whenever I travel to Cambridge I try to buy paper tickets, just to avoid any activity on my account, not sure if this is helpful.


Many thanks for any replies, it is deeply appreciated.

 

[ikcdab]

This will only happen if you get caught again. They don't go back and investigate old cases or random individuals. So it's only if you come to their attention again. So best advice is to pay the proper train fares from now on.

 

[Fawkes Cat]

This will only happen if you get caught again. They don't go back and investigate old cases or random individuals. So it's only if you come to their attention again. So best advice is to pay the proper train fares from now on.

For completeness, it might be worth noting that in the last few years Greater Anglia have done some data driven sweeps (one that sticks in my mind was, I think, for delay repay abuse). They don't seem to have done one recently - which may mean that they have decided not to do any more, or could, I suppose, mean that another one is due soon.

So we can't give an absolute guarantee that there won't be one that picks up on your irregularities. But none of us can change the past, so @ikcdab 's advice in their last sentence remains good: if nothing else, the longer it is since you last offended then it seems to me the less risk there is of there being any follow up.

 

[Yew]

Some other threads on the forum seem to suggest that there is a window of 6 months from the date of the incident to bring forward a prosecution.


Usually I would put a quote here, but given the nuance of the legal situation, I'd prefer to not risk quoting anything out of context. The link below discusses prosecutions and penalties under both the By laws/Right of the Railways Act and Penalty Fares, which do have slightly different rules.

Statute barred penalty fare?

Hi all. I just received a letter today, Notice of Intended Prosecution, for a penalty fare back in January 2014 !! I think it relates to a DLR journey where my oyster did not have enough credits. I gave my details to the inspector at the time but never heard from them again. I have not...

www.railforums.co.uk

Regardless of if it is too late, should your actions be discovered, it is likely that any future mis payment will not be looked upon with discretion.

 

[Pushpit]

It's good that you go to some effort to pay the right fare, and by all means use some of the other forums here to make sure that you haven't missed a legitimate trick in terms if ticketing costs. Obviously it will be extra important to check things like railcard expiry dates and not buying App tickets after boarding - you will see in this forum what some people consider to be "honest mistakes". You don't want to start an investigation when you do have something recent which is problematic.

In practical terms if you have not done anything wrong in the last 6 months you will not be prosecuted in the Magistrates Court. The two relevant areas, the railways' Byelaws and the Regulation of Railways Act requires cases to be launched within 6 months. Other legislation could be used beyond that, but it's just not used. You won't now get a criminal record and there won't be any employment or travel complications.

Rail companies could, for up to 6 years, pursue you in the civil courts, as a debt recovery process. This won't result in a criminal record, and is in my view more user-friendly than the criminal channels. We have seen increasing use of the civil channels recently, or rather threats of using it, but it is a lot less straightforward for the rail companies than the byelaws and RoRA. These recent trawls fall into 2 groups - fishing trips, where they simply ask their computers to list out things which don't make sense (e.g. comparing use of 16-17 railcard against likely age); and cases where the rail company has been too lethargic to get a case to the Magistrates within the appropriate time. One key feature of civil recovery is that railways cannot seek to punish people by this route. They can recover their direct losses, and genuine costs, but anything more than that is open to challenge.

Thinking out of the box, you could make your own total of Thameslink's losses and send them the money, I gather that does happen from time to time. I've also sent a cheque to LNER recently when absolutely no-one wanted to take my fare one stormy Sunday evening, despite repeated attempts. It was cashed. The advantage of that is to make it very difficult, but not impossible, for Thameslink to take you to the Small Claims court process. The disadvantage is that you put yourself on their radar and this may just complicate your life. It's not something I am advocating, but it is a remedy of sorts.

If you are contacted by a rail company, you best revert back to this forum before saying a single word back to them.

 

[Hadders]

You probably won't, but if you do receive contact about previous cases then do not reply, or even acknowledge it. Post a redacted copy of it in this forum and we will be happy to advise on next steps.

 

[saismee]

Definitely stop using Trainline. Use any other retailer as any ticket mistake could cause this railcard misuse and doughnutting to come back up. As others have said, if you do get a scary email, post a redacted copy here and don't reply until you have been given advice from the forum - it's likely they don't have any proof if you aren't actually stopped again.

For completeness, it might be worth noting that in the last few years Greater Anglia...

They may be using GTR to travel to/from London. Though that may be better as they are almost guaranteed an out-of-court settlement if caught.

 

[Haywain]

Also now whenever I travel to Cambridge I try to buy paper tickets, just to avoid any activity on my account, not sure if this is helpful.

If you are not doing anything wrong it doesn't matter how you buy your tickets, and to avoid drawing attention to yourself you should ensure that you always have a valid ticket.

 

[ikcdab]

Assuming you are not doing anything wrong then no need to worry. But if you are buying paper tickets with a debit or credit card, then you can still be tracked, in theory.
And even if you bought all of your tickets with cash, if you were stopped with an invalid ticket, then you have to give your name and address and (again in theory) they could use that to track back though previous online purchases, whatever app you used.

 

[yule28465]

Thanks for the responses, everyone! Much appreciated

 

[Starmill]

I don't think it's worth paying any mind to how you buy the tickets, as Haywain is pointing out above. Instead, as Haywain and others hint, what you need to do is make sure you're always checking you have a valid ticket before you board e.g. if you're using your phone is it charged enough, if you used a railcard do you have it with you, if you only have a paper copy you haven't dropped it etc etc. This way it is very, very unlikely that any future questions will be asked of you.