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  1. My advice is to phone the Prosecutions Department on Monday. What is interesting is that I just got an email from FCC Customer Relations: "Therefore I would advise you to contact our Prosecutions on 0044 2089 294 004 or 0044 2074 659 267 to discuss your case further." At no point was there a demand for a fine nor a deadline by which to pay the fine, just a notice of intent to prosecute. I would therefore advise you to call the Prosecutions Department and offer to pay the £110 they are taking you to court for to keep from getting convicted.
  2. Yes yes, let he without sin cast the first stone and all that. I agree with the majority of responses here. Even RPI had a measured counterpoint to my angry reply. I have had the practical advice, I have had the admonitions and now I will send my guilty plea off to the magistrates court and wait for my conviction. I'll update on what happens next. Though the inexorable nature of the proceeedings means that it's now less about panic, or fear, or any of those emotions. It's more like trepidation. Sod it, I've learned my lesson.
  3. RPI - I find your comment remarkably narrow-minded. You have just summed the root cause of criminality at its basest level yet still fail to see hunger as a possible motive. Of course Tesco doesn't hand out free food to people who are starving, but if they did, street robberies would be cut in half overnight. I suppose it is this lack of foresight that means that you're earning your food money by collaring desperate people and sending them fines for crimes they could not afford to commit in the first place, and I'm digging myself out of a pit by means of a career that I have fought tooth and nail to establish. You have absolutely no right to judge me when I came to this forum in earnest and asked for help. But, I suppose, if I am to be trolled on the topic it would make sense that it was by you.
  4. I asked for advice and practical steps to allow me to calm down a bit. Your condemnation helps no-one, but perhaps now you feel better.
  5. Nice to hear that with a valid excuse, they might exercise some sort of leniency. I will try my best to grovel but I have no extenuating circumstances. I was poor and desperate, the worst kind of citizen in Blighty and an easy case to prosecute. Well done, you managed to find some humanity despite the situation.
  6. Unfortunately the letter is a notice of intent to prosecute, I will re-read it after typing this but I am sure that they are asking for the £110 to cover court costs, plus the fare, plus whatever fine the magistrates award FCC in my absence. Deutsche Bahn are relatively similar I hear but the real bad guys here in Berlin are BVG, the metropolitan transport operators. As you may be aware, Berlin does not use barriers on its transport but in their place employ plain clothes 'kontrollers' who are quite intimidating in their approach. They walk you to a cash machine to get the instant 40 Euro fine, or else call the police, who will drive you home to pick up your ID if it's not on you (which is an offence officially also). Things can spiral out of control. I had a friend who was not a persistent evader but a bit dizzy. She ended up with the option of paying a grand or going to prison for two weeks. In the end we had a party for her in a ping pong bar and raised more than enough money to save her from chokey. While I'm not afraid of that fate, a conviction sounds bad to anyone's ear. Particularly that of my mother. Jokes aside, I would prefer not to be judged by the members of this forum as a habitual fare evader; my honesty in this matter has seemingly painted me in a bad light. At no point have I admitted that, nor did I say that I did not intend to pay any fines. I am happy to rectify the situation, simply that it should be as a settlement and not as a conviction. I am not a 'bad person' for travelling home to get a square meal for the first time in two days, and I am aware of the weakness of this excuse, but I feel that honesty should always be duly noted when questioning whether to pardon or punish. I have yet to plead with FCC for leniency, I neither expect it or any fairness on their part. They have a job to do, after all. If they show absolutely no mercy whatsoever, I can stay here in Germany until the cows come home, but I would far rather face the music and attempt to soothe what seems to be a disproportionate amount of zealous tenacity on the part of FCC. I was stupid once, but all this over a fare less than a fiver?
  7. I'm not exactly happy about it. I am not sure what, if any, impact upon my life a conviction would have. I would certainly like to go to America, and I might like to teach kids or volunteer in a care home. So far none of these has become a reality for me. I do hope there is such a thing as mercy within a corporate like FCC. Their letters would indicate otherwise. Now I need to find the money to post a letter to Kings Cross. I'm serious, my life is that pathetic. Thanks again, Wriggler!
  8. I'm not exactly happy about it. I am not sure what, if any, impact upon my life a conviction would have. I would certainly like to go to America, and I might like to teach kids or volunteer in a care home. So far none of these has become a reality for me. I do hope there is such a thing as mercy within a corporate like FCC. Their letters would indicate otherwise. Now I need to find the money to post a letter to Kings Cross. I'm serious, my life is that pathetic. Thanks again, Wriggler!
  9. Thanks for all of your advice, it's great that you anonymous lot are showing compassion that no-one else is. I am trying to be as honest as possible with FCC and the magistrate's court, but it would seem that honesty only seems to make these people think that they have an open-and-shut case. Which is true. I never said that I was unwilling to pay the court fines, just that at the moment I'm wondering where my next meal is going to come from so ability, rather than willingness, is the issue. I have to write a letter to FCC and plead stupidity/poverty, with skepticism on my part as to whether they will care. Perhaps my residence in Germany makes a difference but I think not - I am still a British citizen after all. What really makes no sense is fining someone who admitted an offence but whom explained that this was entirely provoked by extreme poverty, but of course, this is FCC we're discussing. I will send that grovelling letter - and I am contrite about the matter, really - and simultaneously send the guilty plea to the clerk at the magistrate's court with a declaration of income, both to try to get the hearing aborted. I could rest on the fact that I am an ex-pat, but I don't feel I want to run away from anything. Let's hope that this fact makes them give up on the idea of making a successful claim, but I can smell the tenacity seeping from their odious missives.
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