Four weeks ago, I brought a ticket to see my parents for a Thameslink train using my railcard, without having realised that it had expired three weeks prior. The full fare would have been £9.85 and instead I paid £6.51.
When the ticket inspector came to check my ticket, I gave him both my railcard and ticket and it wasn't until he pointed it out that I knew it was out of date. I had enough money to pay the full fare again and offered to do so. I repeatedly apologised for my mistake, and even offered to pay a penalty fare if necessary. I was completely compliant and did not get aggressive or argumentative in the slightest. However the inspector refused to let me pay a penalty fine, and instead he insisted I wrote down all of my details. He told me that I was lucky he did not call the police there and then and that I would receive a letter in the post.
Yesterday I received a letter saying that the company intends to prosecute me for rail fare evasion! The letter says that the inspector reported that "entered a train for the purpose of travelling without a ticket entitling me to travel"- in fact, he took the ticket that I did have and he also took my rail card from me too.
I don't understand why this whole thing has been escalated to this level. It was an honest mistake, and I offered to rectify the situation. I am a final year law student and I would never have purposely used an expired rail card.
I am really scared of getting a criminal record because of this and I don't know what to do. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.