Excellent. Thanks to all replies. No worry about the offensive behaviour, I have never had any issues of that kind. I think that I do earn approx £350. By the by If I sent my proof of earnings what form would that take, a payslip? DO I have to show a bank statement as well?

Hi. Aplogogies in advance if this has been posted in the wrong place ^_^; I am just curious if anyone here could shed some light on the way in which, or the method in which that a court will decide upon a fine in absence of evidence of persons earnings etc. That is to say, in a persons absence from the Court room, when they (the Court) impose a fine what are the guidlines that they work upon? I'm sure I have read somewhere on here at some time that without a statement of earnings and expenditutres they "pressume" that you earn £350 a week. Is this right? With this method that they use do they then take into account a standard presumtion of what weekly/monthly expenditures are as well? Thanks in advance, your humble poster Danny

Yeah I went to court today. I made the statutory declaration as I haven't received any paperwork or anything, I believe it was sent to another address. I made it clear to them that I haven't ever heard anything from SWT or the court, this is why the case is being re-opened. To be honest I really dont care about paying for someone elses fine, anything is better than having to go back to that place and also have to pay the ridiculous £600 fine. My argument to SWT is that due to not having received anything to date I haven't been given the oppurtunity to pay the fine. This has (from my perspective) gone directly to court without any of the normal opportunities to resolve it. I have sworn this is the case under oath and as such I hope that they will take their Revenue Protection role seriously and try to recover the lost revenue (which can only be something like £5 or something) If they wish to take it back to court it would seem to me that protecting their revenue is not their intention and retribution is.

Thank you OC. I have now got the Statutory Declaration and am sending this off to the necessary court. In relation to your last point I am sadly (and maybe luckily in some ways) ignorant of the process. I have read the "sticky's" about the court proceedure but am not sure if this would apply to me also. If I plead guilty just to get this out of the way, or argue my case and fail, is there any way of gauging how much I may have to pay or is this simply an arbitrary amount that the magistrates decide upon at the time? Is there no way now of speaking to SWT trains now and settling this out of court? I will gladly pay for the initial fine if it prevents me having to go to court. Even just signing the form today was horrible (-_-) I'm not keen on being spoken to like a naughty child and treated with such disdain, especially when their attitude is born purely on presumption of who I am.

Sorry about the last post I wasn't saying what you had said was stupid. I meant that it's stupid to listen to anything that someone says who's sole aim is the opposite of justice i.e. the ticket inspector. In terms of this description that they write just how specific would it need to be? I mean lets say it goes so far as "5ft 7 approx, brown hair" If I am this height and have this colour hair then does that mean that it is me? Surely the only way to conclusively tell would be photographic evidence. I would hate to be there and have them say the description fits when it could equally fit any number of people and then be back at square one. Too be honest I think this may have to be a case of getting over the sense of injustice that I have and just simply pay the fine if I can get the case re-opened again. I dont want to take the risk of having to go to court, get prepared, only to fail. Thank you to everyone for their help in this matter it has really been incredibly useful. I will keep you updated with the progress of this if you wish and let you know how it worked out. Hopefully I will have a positive story to tell

Thank you for this. That is what I will do. This really is ridiculous though. I mean, to think that a Revenue Protection Agent - who as their job title suggests is to make as much money for their company, and are judged successful or unsuccessful by the amount of money in fines that they bring forth - should do anything other than confirm that "that is the person" and their fine was justified is just plain stupid. I have already contacted SWT and the Iracc (or whatever the anacroynim is) complaining about this. They need to ensure that they ahve some measures in place to prevent this from happening to others in future.

No I do not. I haven't done for well over two years now

Thats what I have been saying. I am certain that I never received this fine. I wont lie, I have received a few in the past and have regularly not paid for a ticket on SWT, and this is what annoys me. In this case I have not been caught and I have presumably been sent all the details to another address of which I lived at without my knowledge. Is it possible someone has provided my details when they have been caught? That is the only explanation I can think of. What safeguards do SWT have in place to prevent fraudulent details being provided? I ahve tried to contact them but they do not seem to know.

As far as I am possibly aware I am not the offender in this case. These things usually get imprinted onto your mind and I have no recollection of it. Pain in the arse to be honest. On Monday I will contact the court - if I can find which one it is since it only says HMCS Surrey - and explain my situation. My concern here is that it is a criminal offence to provide an address which is incorrect. I doubt they will give much credeence to the truth (G-d bless justice!) and will work on the basis that I did get the fine but didn't receive the letters. Their next question will probably be why didn't I live there if I gave the address. I dont know when this happened though so I don't know if I was there or not. The thing is I did leave the house pretty sharpish and so I suppose I could argue that out if they want to try and play the "its a criminal offence to provide details for an address you knowingly will soon vacate" Waa waa! I think this is Kamma kicking my arse for all the times I have proudly and smugly cheated SWT.

Thank you for you quick response. I hope that someone will be able to help. The thing is I am dubious about speak to either of these groups (SWT of Bailiffs) in case I somehow back myself into a corner (or get forced as the case may be) and end up having to not eat for a month. How would my post be moved? Should I simply re-post in that forum.?

Greetings. I didn't see this issue raised on any other threads and so made a new topic. I hope someone can help me in my current predicament. My mum has just received a note from a Bailiff company saying that as I didn't appear in court (or pay the initial fine) for what appears to be travelling without a ticket on South West Trains I now owe them £675. Presumably this is Court charges etc. The issue here is that this is the first that I have heard of it. The initial letters were sent to an old address of mine and so I never received them and I do not currently live at the address they have sent the new letter to. I don't know when this was supposed to have happened and don't recall ever getting a fine. My mum just called them to say I don't live there (not saying where I currently live) and they requested a utillity bill of hers to prove that I do not live there. So whats the deal here? Should I simply ignore it and hope it will go away? Or should I contact the Bailiffs or South West Trains and argue the case that someone else had received this fine and used my name and address. I'm almost certain that I didn't live at the house they sent the letter to at the time I was meant to have got the fine. Also how (or why), if I am registered on the electoral roll at my Mums house did they send the letters to the other house? Don't they call up and check? They obviously have found my former (and at that time current) address somehow. Why wasn't that done initially? I will be honest, i'm kind of worried about this. Firstly I cannot afford to pay that amount. Secondly I work in a school and dont want them somehow causing issues with my ability to work there. Please, if anyone has any advice on this or has experienced a similar situation I would be very appreciative of the help. Peace and blessings to all.