[johnsoloman]

I live in the West Midlands and what happened is that I changed my bus pass expiry date and extended it by a week. It expired on the 22nd May and i altered it to the 28th May. At the time the reason why i changed it is because i thought that bus fares are expensive and seeing how it is my last week of sixth form (year 13) before i break up for study leave i thought it might be able to get away with it for just this one week. I am not making any excuses for myself, i know it is very wrong of me but that was the reason why i did it at the time. And i got caught today when trying to catch the bus back home. I got on the bus as normal today flashed my bus pass at the bus driver and normally most drivers don't even bother looking or just glance at it and look away. But this driver was really staring at it and i saw he was frowning. As soon as i noticed i began to walk away and get a seat upstairs as it was a double decker. As i sat down i noticed the bus didn't move for a while and i think he i heard his door open as if to look for me, but he eventually drove on. After a few minutes and a few roads down he stopped at a bus stop on a quiet road and came upstairs. He asked to see my bus pass and i thought to myself 2 options. Either i just give it to him or i just say no and risk getting arrested if he calls the police. So i gave the bus pass to him. He had a good luck and said to me that i'm not very good at forging. He then said this will be confiscated and said 180 fine. At first I thought he meant 1.80 but i checked and i said 180 pounds? he said yes 180 pounds and stood there. I said i don't have any money on me (i genuinely had no money at all on me at the time). He sort of shook his head and walked away, after saying how he is going to return it (my bus pass) to the garage. After that it wasn't a pleasant journey home as that had got me really worried now. I quickly made my way off the bus when it got to my stop as i was worried he may stop me from leaving so he could take my details or even call the police. But managed to quickly get off amongst other people who also got off as well as me.

So there it is. I know it was very wrong of me and i felt like apologising to the bus driver but thought what happens if he asks for my details or calls the police, i thought he may even let me off if he was nice.
The problem for me is that on my bus pass i had a photocard with it with my name, a photo of me and the name of my school. But my surname has a mistake on it, but my first name and surname is pretty much unique at my school and if they were to contact the school there would be no mix up as nobody really has a similar name to me . Thinking now maybe i should have taken that out sneakily before i gave it to him but then again he may have noticed and might have asked for it. But all in all i just did as he asked and wasn't rude to him or anything.

My worry is now what am i to expect? The fine he said to me of £180 at the time seemed a bit random like he made it up. However, the maximum fine can be up to £1000 but i think that my be if i am taken to court. So what do you think will happen? Will i get a letter asking me to pay the fine? Or will i get a letter to be taken to court for prosecution? and will i get a criminal record? Will the police get involved and pay me a visit? Or maybe there is the very slim chance that the bus driver may just let me off and just destroy the bus pass? Or they may not be able to trace me as they pretty much have my name and school but not my address but the school could provide that couldn't they if they asked?

I am now in a real big problem now and really regret what i have done. I'm not sure what to do now. Wait and risk a fine coming or even a letter for court or maybe it could be forgotten/forgiven?

Any advice please? If this has ever happened to you?

[amime]

(Original post by johnsoloman)
.

Didn't read but was it TWM?

If so, don't worry about it. They never seem to follow it up (other than the initial first letter) because they don't usually check the information that you have given them. For all they know, it could have been a random person that gave your name and address.

Don't think you can get a CR either for fare dodging as I think its a civil dispute father than a criminal one (but not certain on that)

[johnsoloman]

(Original post by amime)
Didn't read but was it TWM?

If so, don't worry about it. They never seem to follow it up (other than the initial first letter) because they don't usually check the information that you have given them. For all they know, it could have been a random person that gave your name and address.

Don't think you can get a CR either for fare dodging as I think its a civil dispute father than a criminal one (but not certain on that)

Whats a TWM?
But the bus driver confiscated my bus pass which also includes my photocard which contains my name, school and a photo of me. So they do have details of me but not my address but surely they can get that and more details if they contacted the school could they? But on the other hand i'm finishing school soon, going for study leave for A2 exams.

[amime]

(Original post by johnsoloman)
Whats a TWM?
But the bus driver confiscated my bus pass which also includes my photocard which contains my name, school and a photo of me. So they do have details of me but not my address but surely they can get that and more details if they contacted the school could they? But on the other hand i'm finishing school soon, going for study leave for A2 exams.

TWM = Travel west midlands buses.

You should be okay. Even though they have your details they, very, very rarely follow up fines.

Plus I don't think that schools are allowed to give information to businesses regardless of the situation, unless its a police issue. But before it can be a police issue I think they need to ask if you're going pay the fine or not. But of course they cant ask because they don't have your address. (But I'm not great at law, so I'm probably wrong)

[johnsoloman]

(Original post by amime)
TWM = Travel west midlands buses.

You should be okay. Even though they have your details they, very, very rarely follow up fines.

Yeah it was a TWM bus, i'm just worried that i will get fined or even prosecuted. So not sure what to do now, i'm hoping they will let me off.

[Father Ted]

Tell them they are a bunch of robbing b*stards so thats why you did it and refuse to pay the fine.

[johnsoloman]

I'm thinking that i might just call them up and apologise and offer to pay the £180 fine.
But its a lot of money and they might not trace it up. If they were to trace it up would they contact me to pay the fine or will they take the matter straight to police and the court?

[LiberiFatali]

I don't think it will be quite that serious, if anything they will contact you about the fine. However, until that moment (if it ever happens), don't call them.

[tehforum]

(Original post by johnsoloman)
I'm thinking that i might just call them up and apologise and offer to pay the £180 fine.
But its a lot of money and they might not trace it up. If they were to trace it up would they contact me to pay the fine or will they take the matter straight to police and the court?

Relax, and let it go.

[noodles!]

I just sent TWM a cheque for a tenner and it was fine- I was travelling with my doctored bus pass and even the doctored pass was out of date. But the inspector never noticed that it was doctored! It was never followed up so I wouldn't worry

[KennyChou]

Lol, don't worry. Even if they contact your school, they can't get your address without calling the police (which they're not supposed to do over fines, ever). He's just going to settle for confiscating your pass. Usually when they fine you, they get your address then and there or possibly when you're getting off. You're okay. Worst case scenario, the school will find out and tell your parents. The bus driver isn't going to waste his own time following this up.

[JXamie]

If they do 'find you' can't you just say that your pass was lost/stolen? Not really much they can say to that.

[Lozza_00]

(Original post by johnsoloman)
I'm thinking that i might just call them up and apologise and offer to pay the £180 fine.
But its a lot of money and they might not trace it up. If they were to trace it up would they contact me to pay the fine or will they take the matter straight to police and the court?

Don't phone them! They probably won't follow it up, and if they do they'll send you the fine first. Don't just let your guilty concience get the better of you and give up £180!

[OMGWTFBBQ]

I thought standard fare was £20...

[Sternumator]

It sounds like you will be alright. I think the best tatic would have been to bin your pass/ shove it in your pants and them claim you lost it but you showed him on the way in. Once I accidently used my pass for a week after expiry and none of the bus drivers said anything, I forgot to check the date on it.

[pinda.college]

Should have paid for a return ticket you riff.

[Lu-x]

I remember when I got caught on a TWM bus trying to pay with foreign currency

[rugbyladosc]

give me £100 and i will sort it out for you

[charllysaur]

This happened to me before, they didn't get your address so they aren't likely to chase it up as others have said.
With me, I was unfortunate enough that they did. I said that because it was expired I got rid of it and someone else must have picked it up and used it, they accepted that and I never heard anything else from them.

[johnsoloman]

(Original post by charllysaur)
This happened to me before, they didn't get your address so they aren't likely to chase it up as others have said.
With me, I was unfortunate enough that they did. I said that because it was expired I got rid of it and someone else must have picked it up and used it, they accepted that and I never heard anything else from them.

Hey, what do you mean by someone must have picked it up and used it?
So they caught you with an out of date or altered bus pass? So then you said that you got rid of it and someone else used it? I don't understand?
But in my case i altered an out of date bus pass and used it and got caught also the bus pass was confiscated.