Railway Mistake

Hi all,

I am really anxious these days because a few weeks ago I was spoken to by a railway officer because I was sitting in First Class without a ticket. Let me explain.

I have recently started a new job which requires me to go in and out of London everyday (I live out of London) and as it's my first job, it's been difficult adjusting to the 9-5 schedule. I have to wake up around half 5 am just to get the train on time and I came home about 7 pm. This was all starting to affect my health and one day I was so out of it and I really needed to sit down & just went to first class. There were no seats on the train in standard class.

So I sat in first class (for the first and only time ever) & just my bad luck, the officers came. I had lost my standard class tickets. I usually get an outward and return paper tickets (barcodes never work) and I usually throw my outward ticket away after its been used to avoid mixing it up with the return ticket but that day I must've been so out of it that I threw them both away (after entering the platform) as they were together in my front pocket.

Basically the officer gave me a note and now I'm afraid the prosecution team will ask me to come to court. I never make these mistakes and that was just a bad day where I was sick and still adjusting to the schedule. It's been 2 weeks and there's no contact, I check everyday if I received any letters from them but not yet. Has anyone else been through this? Is it possible they could settle this out of court? I'm happy to pay a fine.