How likely is a court hearing for fare evasion?

I was stopped for having a short ticket from St Pancras to Farringdon (£3.50) instead of Stevenage to farridngon (£20). I did this as they have been extremely relaxed with ticket checking and never scan tickets, as long as you have a valid ticket you can get through the barriers.

However, one inspector went to scan one day and knew I hadn’t scanned in at St Pancras. He said they will find out everything, and I didn’t want to say this was my only time doing it in case they found out and I got in deeper trouble. So I said 2/3 times I’ve used this short ticket, but I did show them examples of a full trip I have done too.

I have received a letter in the post claiming they have an intention to take me to court and want me to reply with my version of events. Having searched this, I can see this letter is fairly common for fare evasion, and I am really hoping it’s just a fine and out of court settlement.

Does anyone have any experience in this, or know how many cases actually end up in court?

My only concern is that I said I’ve done it 2/3 times, in reality it’s likely to be slightly more (5/6 perhaps). I don’t know whether they have time or resource to investigate that. Or whether I was better off saying it’s my only time.

It is the first time I’ve been caught and taken details, and is 2/3 times a lot in the scheme of things?

My only concern is that I said I’ve done it 2/3 times, in reality it’s likely to be slightly more (5/6 perhaps). I don’t know whether they have time or resource to investigate that. Or whether I was better off saying it’s my only time.

It is the first time I’ve been caught and taken details, and is 2/3 times a lot in the scheme of things?

Just curious, are you going to get the correct tickets from now on?

They'll only know what they have on record for you regarding warnings etc. They're not going to look at your payment/purchase history.

If this is the first official warning then it's unlikely they'll pursue you for evasion, as above, more likely you'll just get a penalty fine.

But for god's sake just buy the correct ticket going forward.

Perhaps a mistake telling them I’ve done it 2/3 times. The man was very intimidating, kept cutting me off, said stop lying ti things I was truthful about.

I have been ever since (08/04/22)

Got away with it plenty of times just showing them I have a ticket (short one) and they let you through. Been going into work every week for 5 months and that’s the only time they’ve clamped down

They won’t take you to court as it isn’t worth the time. They will however send you a penalty notice to your registered address telling you to pay x amount in fare and it will likely be cut in half in paid within 28 days.

In short, a fine. If you continue to ignore the fine, they will then escalate the fee and if you ignore that, that’s when debt collectors will come into it.

Had this happen to me once because of Brighton Council (I was a student at the time) demanding council tax and them chasing me for 2 years when I didn’t even know as they kept sending letters addressed to myself over to my old student accommodation.

I was stopped for having a short ticket from St Pancras to Farringdon (£3.50) instead of Stevenage to farridngon (£20). I did this as they have been extremely relaxed with ticket checking and never scan tickets, as long as you have a valid ticket you can get through the barriers.

However, one inspector went to scan one day and knew I hadn’t scanned in at St Pancras. He said they will find out everything, and I didn’t want to say this was my only time doing it in case they found out and I got in deeper trouble. So I said 2/3 times I’ve used this short ticket, but I did show them examples of a full trip I have done too.

I have received a letter in the post claiming they have an intention to take me to court and want me to reply with my version of events. Having searched this, I can see this letter is fairly common for fare evasion, and I am really hoping it’s just a fine and out of court settlement.

Does anyone have any experience in this, or know how many cases actually end up in court?

Your problem here is that you bought a ticket and it was clearly for a shorter journey than you made. So it's clear that this wasn't some kind of misunderstanding on your part. And you've admitted it to the ticket inspector. And you've admitted to the ticket inspector that this wasn't a one-off occurrence and you've done this before.

A prosecutions department might give you the benefit of the doubt if it was a one-off case; but when you've clearly tried to play the system (you deliberately bought a ticket that wouldn't cover the distance you travelled plus you've admitted you've done this more than once) they might well be inclined towards prosecution.

You might want to consider how a criminal conviction for a crime involving dishonesty will look in the future.

The railway company (which one was it, by the way?) might make you an offer for this to be dealt with out of court. But they might not. You might perhaps want to get legal advice on the best way to proceed.

As you've been caught once, and they have you on their records, a future offence might well be an automatic prosecution.

What would I say in relation to this? I am cautious of telling the intent was to fare evade as that would be admitting to a criminal offence

What would I say in relation to this? I am cautious of telling the intent was to fare evade as that would be admitting to a criminal offence

Depends on the exact wording of the questions. It's going to be difficult to not admit it as you were carrying the incorrect ticket and whoever stopped you is aware of that and will have written it in their report.

I would suggest that you need to provide a plausible explanation as to why you purchased the wrong ticket.