Will I get prosecuted? No train fare, what happens next
I went onto a train without a ticket which was a journey from where I live. It was stupid.
As I got off there were some official people, a police officer.
The official guy who was checking tickets asked me for my reason which I said I forgot.
I said I take the journeys a few times a week.
He took my name, address and said next time you can buy tickets at discounted prices.
He goes the company will write back to me for an explanation.
If my explanation isn't good enough, what will happen? Give me a fine? Will I get a warning that goes on the register?
Any experiences
As I got off there were some official people, a police officer.
The official guy who was checking tickets asked me for my reason which I said I forgot.
I said I take the journeys a few times a week.
He took my name, address and said next time you can buy tickets at discounted prices.
He goes the company will write back to me for an explanation.
If my explanation isn't good enough, what will happen? Give me a fine? Will I get a warning that goes on the register?
Any experiences
Original post by Anonymous
I went onto a train without a ticket which was a journey from where I live. It was stupid.
As I got off there were some official people, a police officer.
The official guy who was checking tickets asked me for my reason which I said I forgot.
I said I take the journeys a few times a week.
He took my name, address and said next time you can buy tickets at discounted prices.
He goes the company will write back to me for an explanation.
If my explanation isn't good enough, what will happen? Give me a fine? Will I get a warning that goes on the register?
Any experiences
As I got off there were some official people, a police officer.
The official guy who was checking tickets asked me for my reason which I said I forgot.
I said I take the journeys a few times a week.
He took my name, address and said next time you can buy tickets at discounted prices.
He goes the company will write back to me for an explanation.
If my explanation isn't good enough, what will happen? Give me a fine? Will I get a warning that goes on the register?
Any experiences
Iโm not sure how it works with all train companies but with Northern, they charge you ยฃ100 fine plus the cost of the fare
Original post by Anonymous
I went onto a train without a ticket which was a journey from where I live. It was stupid.
As I got off there were some official people, a police officer.
The official guy who was checking tickets asked me for my reason which I said I forgot.
I said I take the journeys a few times a week.
He took my name, address and said next time you can buy tickets at discounted prices.
He goes the company will write back to me for an explanation.
If my explanation isn't good enough, what will happen? Give me a fine? Will I get a warning that goes on the register?
Any experiences
As I got off there were some official people, a police officer.
The official guy who was checking tickets asked me for my reason which I said I forgot.
I said I take the journeys a few times a week.
He took my name, address and said next time you can buy tickets at discounted prices.
He goes the company will write back to me for an explanation.
If my explanation isn't good enough, what will happen? Give me a fine? Will I get a warning that goes on the register?
Any experiences
You say you do the journeys a few times a week. Do you ever pay for tickets? Or do you normally buy tickets and this just a one-off occurrence when you forgot?
Check to see if there's a railcard you can buy that will entitle you to discounted fares -- e.g. the 16-17 Saver or the 16-25 Railcard.
You will probably get a letter threatening prosecution and asking for your comments. If you do, and you handle it appropriately, you're likely to be allowed to deal with the matter via an out-of-court settlement. If you ignore the letter, it's likely that you'll be prosecuted and end up with a criminal record.
The good folks at the RailUKforums Disputes & Prosecutions forum give good advice on how to handle this.
Whatever you do, make sure you buy tickets in future.
Reply 3
Original post by martin7
You say you do the journeys a few times a week. Do you ever pay for tickets? Or do you normally buy tickets and this just a one-off occurrence when you forgot?
Check to see if there's a railcard you can buy that will entitle you to discounted fares -- e.g. the 16-17 Saver or the 16-25 Railcard.
You will probably get a letter threatening prosecution and asking for your comments. If you do, and you handle it appropriately, you're likely to be allowed to deal with the matter via an out-of-court settlement. If you ignore the letter, it's likely that you'll be prosecuted and end up with a criminal record.
The good folks at the RailUKforums Disputes & Prosecutions forum give good advice on how to handle this.
Whatever you do, make sure you buy tickets in future.
Check to see if there's a railcard you can buy that will entitle you to discounted fares -- e.g. the 16-17 Saver or the 16-25 Railcard.
You will probably get a letter threatening prosecution and asking for your comments. If you do, and you handle it appropriately, you're likely to be allowed to deal with the matter via an out-of-court settlement. If you ignore the letter, it's likely that you'll be prosecuted and end up with a criminal record.
The good folks at the RailUKforums Disputes & Prosecutions forum give good advice on how to handle this.
Whatever you do, make sure you buy tickets in future.
The operator took down for only today's missing ticket.
It would be unfair as I binned the other tickets.
I did show him tickets purchased last week. I can show the tickets purchased.
He just said I will get a letter asking for an explanation, that's all.
What usually is in the letter and what happens after I respond to the explanation?
Reply 4
Original post by martin7
You say you do the journeys a few times a week. Do you ever pay for tickets? Or do you normally buy tickets and this just a one-off occurrence when you forgot?
Check to see if there's a railcard you can buy that will entitle you to discounted fares -- e.g. the 16-17 Saver or the 16-25 Railcard.
You will probably get a letter threatening prosecution and asking for your comments. If you do, and you handle it appropriately, you're likely to be allowed to deal with the matter via an out-of-court settlement. If you ignore the letter, it's likely that you'll be prosecuted and end up with a criminal record.
The good folks at the RailUKforums Disputes & Prosecutions forum give good advice on how to handle this.
Whatever you do, make sure you buy tickets in future.
Check to see if there's a railcard you can buy that will entitle you to discounted fares -- e.g. the 16-17 Saver or the 16-25 Railcard.
You will probably get a letter threatening prosecution and asking for your comments. If you do, and you handle it appropriately, you're likely to be allowed to deal with the matter via an out-of-court settlement. If you ignore the letter, it's likely that you'll be prosecuted and end up with a criminal record.
The good folks at the RailUKforums Disputes & Prosecutions forum give good advice on how to handle this.
Whatever you do, make sure you buy tickets in future.
It was either cross country trains, western Northern or Avanti west coast.
It would be unfair, as I have binned previous tickets purchased.
I did show tickets purchased last week.
He only took down the reason for today. /////
The inspector told me I will receive a letter asking for an explanation.
I can show in the letter purchasing tickets after. I've binned some and kept some tickets from before.
The inspector only took down today's reason, it's unfair for other days, their are ticket checks everyday,,,why ask for an explanation for other days? Surely if I don't pay for tickets, I would be stopped so many tickets
The inspector only took down today's reason.
What usually happens after that? After the explanation
Reply 5
It's definitely cross country trains.
The inspector stated I will receive a letter where I require to write an explanation.
The inspector stated I will receive a letter where I require to write an explanation.
Original post by Anonymous
It was either cross country trains, western Northern or Avanti west coast.
It would be unfair, as I have binned previous tickets purchased.
I did show tickets purchased last week.
He only took down the reason for today. /////
The inspector told me I will receive a letter asking for an explanation.
I can show in the letter purchasing tickets after. I've binned some and kept some tickets from before.
The inspector only took down today's reason, it's unfair for other days, their are ticket checks everyday,,,why ask for an explanation for other days? Surely if I don't pay for tickets, I would be stopped so many tickets
The inspector only took down today's reason.
What usually happens after that? After the explanation
It would be unfair, as I have binned previous tickets purchased.
I did show tickets purchased last week.
He only took down the reason for today. /////
The inspector told me I will receive a letter asking for an explanation.
I can show in the letter purchasing tickets after. I've binned some and kept some tickets from before.
The inspector only took down today's reason, it's unfair for other days, their are ticket checks everyday,,,why ask for an explanation for other days? Surely if I don't pay for tickets, I would be stopped so many tickets
The inspector only took down today's reason.
What usually happens after that? After the explanation
A lot of people caught without a ticket will be people who routinely don't bother buying tickets. So a ticket inspector finding someone with no ticket is very likely to assume that he/she has caught a repeat offender.
The frequency of inspection varies a lot. I travel to and from work on the train on a fairly regular basis. My ticket gets checked maybe 50% of my morning trips, but only very occasionally in the evening.
I suspect the inspectors are following a process and that there's certain things they're required to ask you. They only need to know the reason why you can't produce a ticket on the specific train they've caught you on, to make sure that reporting you is the appropriate thing to do.
Once they write to you and you give your explanation, they'll decide what to do -- hopefully they'll offer an out-of-court settlement; but they could prosecute you.
Again, I would suggest you look at the forum I mentioned in my first reply for how to deal with the letter when it comes. Note that you might be waiting up to 6 months for that letter to arrive.
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