Yes option 2, but don't mention the trousers thing. As mentioned previously it sounds like a very far-fetched excuse! We can joke about it on here, but the train company receiving the letter are going to think you're making things up. Obviously you know the truth, but please appreciate how it could appear. The train companies have heard every excuse in the book - and plenty more. Don't give them any reason to doubt your honesty or sincerity by writing about such a fanciful excuse. There are so many threads on how, by accident, someone picked up their brother, friends, grandmothers, fathers oyster card (which all happened to be subsidised or cheaper), than their own. Write the letter, be apologetic and offer to pay costs to them now. This offers you the chance (the best chance) to avoid court and to avoid a fine. Remember as outlined above, only a court can impose a fine. What you're offering is to pay admin costs to the train company - no doubt they will be quite high but the alternative is you attending court (mind you this gives you a chance to wear those formal trousers again from your brother)! Good luck.

Oh come on, don't be a plonker. You can't win this one and if you go ahead with this lazy (can't be bothered to read suggested helpful articles), arrogant (wishing to countersue, ha ha), attitude then you deserve the far higher fine you'll end up with. You can argue all you like about your principles and all this "Hell No to TfL Bro" rubbish, but the facts are the facts. Don't be a naive kid all your life, time to grow up and accept you did NOT have a correct ticket. You ignored the signs. You argued back (and seems like you still are). You were wrong mate. You say by accident but TfL have heard it all before. Freedom passes in the same wallet as an Oyster PAYG - ha, what a joke. No-one is going to believe you didn't know what you were doing. TfL take Freedom abuse very seriously and with suckers like you who try to fight back, it just shows that you were probably guilty anyway, but regardless, they'll throw the book at you for being so argumentative all the time when YOU WERE WRONG! Pay up, accept it and move on. Live by the rules and don't argue back when you don't have a leg to stand on. And perhaps be more grateful for those trying to help you.....

Yes, well maybe you're right. Perhaps Eurostar and every single international airline should refund fares. Perhaps the shops and restaurants employing people in Paris should tell their staff it's not safe and they're closing up. Perhaps we should just corden off this dangerous city and leave those silly enough to remain to rot. Or maybe we should put it in perspective. Of course the TV pictures were horrifying, it had JUST HAPPENED. And thanks for the "...and as for your "this is Paris France we are talking about, not Baghdad" remark...I suspect you probably would not be brave enough to say that to the faces of the 132 victims families? And if you are...I have three tickets to Paris you can use to travel there and show them how you disrespect the memory of their loved ones." remark you made. It truly does show (a) a Daily Mail type spin and twist of my comment and (b) is disrespectful itself. If you truly believe Paris is more dangerous than Baghdad right now then maybe you should stay in your little cottage, bring your family up in cotton wool and remove yourself from real life. As Sabre mentioned and as any sane person would observe, can you think of a city in Europe right now with better security and honestly, what are the chances of this happening again in Paris? To respect those who died and their families is to show support, not act like a coward.

Are you all serious? I can't believe this Daily Mail type reactionary behaviour. This is Paris France we are talking about, not Baghdad. It was a tragic, desperately sad day last Friday and, yes, the situation is far from resolved, but please can we all calm down and instead of running away, show some support to our European neighbours. Did we turn people away from London in the wake of 7/7. Get over this 'my life is so important and I'm such an important human being' that I can't take the risk of visiting a city that had a terrorist attack 4 weeks previously. We all stand together in Europe, don't let terrorists win. Eurostar are not profiting from terror. They sold tickets in good faith and unless the British Consulate advises people against visiting Paris (which would be an outrageous over-reaction), then calm down, leave Eurostar alone and visit Paris, have a good time and support the French people in their struggles.

The presumption of innocence is absolutely correct, however in the interests of providing the best advice on this forum, occasionally additional questions may be asked to delve into the detail and also to understand any further lines of investigation TfL MAY have followed up. There have been other threads on this forum about the initial validity of freedom and student passes and I merely wanted to seek assurance on this in case it later proved to be an issue. I was certainly not making assumptions - hence the ? question marks in my sentences. There are indeed some that see the worst in everyone, this is now apparent.

Then he asked for my ID and started writing his Qs and my As and said I looked to young to be married which I found a bit odd, but said I was 29 - even though he had my D/L. Asked if I lived with my dad (no) and where he lived (Coventry). I would have thought TfL would be very interested in why your father had a (free) Oyster card when he lives in Coventry? Did he recently move there but maintain an address in London to claim this benefit?

In my humble opinion there is a bit too much waffle. You haven't explained why this was an "innocent mistake" - I would try and convince the reader of this letter why you genuinely thought tickets were transferable. As an adult surely you're aware of basic rules and conditions of train tickets, I would take this to be a normal assumption so you'll need to convince them otherwise. Finally I would never refer to this as a "silly mistake". The TOC aren't treating it as such so I wouldn't recommend you calling it this way; especially as you're now finding this is quite a serious issue for you.