I've wrote back to the prosecutors office yesterday so fingers crossed! I'll let you know how it goes.

P.S I'm not trying to get out of this, but I just don't know how I should be responding/what I should be doing. Thanks.

I've counted and it's been missed I think - the incident happened in the first week of October, and I was written to by SWT mid December. I then received summons last week which looked as though they were submitted to the court on 23 March. 6 months would have been the first week of April. Do I need to copy the letter I send to the prosecutor to the court? I'm not how I go about this and I don't want to miss the required 3 days before court date to inform them of what I am doing.

Thanks for your help so far everyone. I understand ignorance isn't a defence! The station is on the Reading line, but not too far out. I've been mulling this over in my mind whilst drafting the letter to the prosecutor I'm sending today, there was a lot of time between the incident and when I was contacted. I'm pretty sure the only information he took from me was description, there was no caution or other questions asked. He didn't even seem that sure what he was doing. I am thinking my response is going to be along the lines of can they re-consider his statement again as I don't believe he completed it in a timely fashion for it to be reported, as well as he only took down description & address information therefore 3/4 of his statement I believe to be untrue etc etc.

Hi everyone, I'm new to this site but thought I would post as the advice given so far seems to help a lot of people out. So here goes... At the beginning of October 2009 I got off from my way home from work and noticed that there were officials at the station (assisting the Transport Police I believe). I proceeded to look for my ticket, and approached one gentleman as I could not find it. I explained my situation and this person filled out what I think was a stop and search book that took down my description, viewed some ID and then they called to check my address, all to their satisfaction. This person told me that the station would be in contact regarding me not having my ticket. I was not fined even though upon realising I didn't have it that I would pay the fare then and there. I was not told that I had breached any bye laws at the time. At the end of November/beginning of December 2009 I received a letter from SWT asking for my version of events from that day. I did not keep the ticket that I thought I left at home, as I travel a lot for work I only keep the tickets that I need for expenses. As I had paid in cash I wasn't able to show the ticket being bought. Likely excuses I know, but this isn't really my issue so thanks for bearing with me. I responded explaining the situation, apologising as well as offering again to pay the ticket and pay a fine if that is what the next steps were. I have since received a court summons (nearly 4 months later) for contravening bye law no. 18(2) - failure to hand over a ticket when requested to do so. My concerns lie in the statement provided by the so called "authorised person" in that they are saying they requested to see my ticket (they weren't requesting tickets from travellers at all) and that he had advised me that I had already travelled therefore couldn't buy my ticket (which didn't happen). He did not interview me, he did not explain what was happening, and only took my physical appearance down (which is incorrect from his statement) and checked my address (which has been spelt incorrectly, I'm surprised I even received the correspondence!). I am not sure where I stand with this. I admit to not having a ticket as this is what happened, however I don't believe that the statement provided by the "authorised person" is true and honest. I don't particulary want to go to court and plead not guilty as I can't get the time off work and am completely embarrassed about what has happened so do not plan to discuss this with my employer. In addition to the un-due stress I am feeling! I haven't as yet asked for a settlement out of court with paying fare and reasonable admin etc costs. I did call the prosecutors office today to discuss that I believe the statement provided is incorrrect and they advised that I should write back to them explaining this - which I plan to do - however wanted to seek your advice first. My court date is in 2 weeks. Any help would be gratefully appreciated!