Hi, I did a really stupid thing about 4 years ago. I wasnt in a very good place at the time. I was caught with a childs ticket before boarding the train. When questioned by the ticket inspector I panicked having never done anything like this before. I didnt know my new address at the time, the ticket inspector came down on me like a ton of bricks and to be honest I was very scared of him and the situation I found myself in. I gave him my name and date of birth and my old address I had no forms of ID appart from a medical note which had my details on it. He took the ticket off me and told me I would recieve something in the post. Obviously I never recieved anything as I was no longer at the address. I am so ashamed at my actions. I have read that if you do not respond to anything from them then they may prosecute in your absence. I am in a very different place now, and feel that I must sort this matter out. I now have a child and husband. I would hate to think that this matter would stop us from taking our child on holiday, stop me from applying for certain jobs, hold my husband back due to my stupid action etc. However I have no idea where to start. I have done lots of research however cannot find any answers. I had thought to ring the company and explain the situation, however I am affraid if they have dropped the case I may incriminate myself futher.Having left this for 4 years I feel that its not going to go in any favor of mine. Obviously I am not wanting to get off with anything. I am perfectly willing/happy to pay any fines etc. I am of the understanding that I would recieve a fine and a criminal record, Im concerned about this as I have no idea what happened with this. I know what I did was terrible and would never ever do anything like that ever again. I no longer live in the uk either so it does make it even more difficult to sort this out. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Hi all. I have read a few posts on here and thought I would await my letter before posting, but now would look for a little advice if it is possible. The facts are: I was travelling to work from my local station (Whiston) to Liverpool Lime St and was running late, knowing that I could always get a ticket at the other end. There was no problem with this, however I intended on my return journey from Lime St to get off at Wavetree and so just got a return from Wavetree. This was extremely stupid and I don't need telling I was in the wrong, I feel awful about it. Although it's no excuse for my stupidness, I never get the train back to Wavetree and I was in fact using all different trains due to my mum being in hospital - I was going to Wavetree to get a lift to the hospital. It's no excuse at all and im not looking for sympathy but trying to express how bad I feel. Im not one to make excuses but at the age of 22 finding out my mum had a brain tumour my mind wasnt exactly focussed on stations - stupid I know. Anyway, i got stopped after I had purchased my ticket, panicked and gave an incorrect name (but the right address) again -stupid!!!! I told him pretty much straight away what my right name was, but now the letter has come addressed to the original name I gave and not my real name. I really don't want this to go to court - along with the stress of trying to care for my mum, I dont want a criminal record - it would definitely destroy my legal career (I know I should have a better brain than this). I don't know what difference it makes but I have never been in trouble at all and I have now also purchased an annual pass for nothern rail so i dont risk this happening again. Has anyone got any advice please? I do feel terrible and will definitely not be doing anything like this again. I appreciate my stupidity and will be extremely grateful for any advice what so ever. Thank you.

Hello. Today I got caught niave, showing an old ticket which was no longer valid. I got pulled up about it and a guy wrote my details down in a notebook and said i will have the opportunity to explain my situation. I gave them my current address but I am moving in 5 days... Do you think I will recieve the notification before then? If not, who shall I tell my change of details to?

Hello all - I've been having a look over posts in this forum for about the last hour and there's a lot of useful stuff so thanks to everyone involved. the situation; it involves my girlfriend and happened about 4 months ago. I wanted to post just to get a feel of things because at the moment I don't have all the exact details and she's worried. She got the train from a station into London. She bought a return ticket from a machine at the station that included a ‘zones 1-6 day travelcard’ (or whatever it's called). However, she bought that ticket thinking that she had her 16-25 railcard with her. When she got into London someone official asked to see her ticket and when she couldn't produce the railcard (because she'd left it at home) he confiscated her ticket, took her details (which she gave) and told her she couldn't continue her journey and would have to go back. She didn't have any money on her (only card) so he gave her a signed note to allow her make the journey back to the station that she had come from. He must have made mention of the possibility of prosecution as I got a phone call at this point with her in floods of tears being worried about being sent to prison. She made the journey back again without further problem. This is where the plot thickens though - when she got home and found her railcard it turned out that it had expired so it wouldn't have been valid even if she'd remembered it (she has since bought a new railcard and continues to use it whenever we use the train). She then received a letter a couple of months ago summoning her to court at the beginning of September. She rang a solicitor on the strength of a friend’s referral and they weren't interested, saying that it wasn't their area of expertise and she should contact someone local to the magistrates court. She's now terrified that she's going to have a criminal record for fraud and lose her job. This sounds unlikely to me but I have absolutely no experience of this sort situation so I can't offer any concrete advice. Any thoughts on what I've said and how to proceed would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the slightly hazy specifics - she's just told me over the phone that she's due in court in a couple of weeks and doesn't have any idea what to do next. I’ll get more from her asap and get them on here. Cheers, drmac

I have had a quick look around here but I cannot find the info I am after. I have had a letter with a £65.50 fine after travelling with the wrong ticket. My mistake entirely, I got mixed up with another similar sounding station, when the error was pointed out I offered to pay the extra 50p but this fell on deaf ears. I want to pay the fine to avoid court action but I need to pay in instalments as I do not have £65.50 as I am a student and have no money now it is the summer. my query is does someone have a template of a letter for this kind of situation? I have come to write to them and have no idea what to put!

Hi All, I think I've gotten myself in a fair whack of trouble and I've seen that this forum has really helped a few people out who have been in my situation in the past, I was wondering if anyone would mind looking over this letter? Hopefully it will explain everything, i'm planning on sending it to FCC. If you could tell me what you thought I would be extremely grateful. Thanks in advance. FYI I have not yet received any summons, I was planning on printing this off and delivering it to the prosecution dept in person. Dear First Capital Connect, I am writing to you to explain a series of events which began on the 13th of July. On the Friday 13th of July 2012 at around 6pm I was traveling from Brighton to East Croydon on the FCC Bedford service. I was distracted, and missed my stop at East Croydon, and so I alighted the train at Farringdon, hoping that I might be able to extend my ticket upon arrival. I proceeded to the gates and asked a FCC employee if I could extend my ticket and was told that I could not, and that a Penalty fare would have to be issued. Not having the funds upon my person to pay the fare at that time, I was told I could pay the fare at a later date if I gave my name and address. I live with my mother, and did not want her to see any communications regarding fines because it would have caused myself embarrassment and her stress, and so impulsively, I gave the name of an old school friend. I regretted doing this immediately, but panicked and thought that the consequences would be fare worse if I did not continue, and stupidly I gave an old address for this person, thinking I might at least then be able to intercept the communications from FCC at the given address and pay the fine that way. I left the station, realising that what I had done was stupid, but unsure of what to do. After realising the potential gravity of my actions I returned to the station on the next working day (Monday 16th, at around 6pm) and confessed everything to a member of station staff, who I think was called xxxx. I told him that I was there to take responsibility for what I had done, and to provide the correct details. He told me I would have to return and talk to the member of staff who completed the form, in this case a staff member called ‘xxx’. He told me she would next be working on Wednesday 18th , and so I returned again this morning at 7am and confessed my grave error to this member of staff, saying that I was willing to accept the consequences and wanted to set the record straight. She gave me the address of the Prosecutions Department to write to, which is why you are receiving this letter. I have enclosed details of the false details which I regrettably gave, and my correct details are also enclosed. I cannot believe how stupid I have been, and I feel an inexpressible burden of regret for my actions and the harm they may have caused to everyone involved in this situation, and I would particularly like to extend an apology to the station staff involved. I realise that fare evasion costs the industry 400 million pounds a year, and I understand the need for a Penalty Fare system. Although I never intended to evade my fare, or to give false details, I can solemnly swear that I have learnt my lesson, and will make sure nothing of this nature ever happens again. I realise that if FCC choose to bring this before court I will have to accept that decision, but if you are willing to settle out of court I would be willing to pay my full penalty fare and offer compensation of £300 pounds to cover all of your costs to this date. I have enclosed both cheques as a token of my sincerity. I would be extremely grateful if FCC were willing to consider this, as a criminal conviction would ruin my career as a social worker, in which I which involves care work with vulnerable and disabled and adults and elderly people. I also have family in the United States, and a criminal conviction would mean I would very likely never see them again. I realise that I have made a grave mistake and now I must leave the issue in your hands. I apologise again for my stupidity and ask that you consider my plea. Thank you.

Hi all, Recently, my wife was sent by my mother to collect her medicines and this errand required a bus journey. My wife has only been in this country for a few weeks and was travelling on the bus unaccompanied for the first time. She had traveled a couple of times before, but that was with me and I would just give her the oyster to touch in and out. Unfortunately, I was away on a conference in Switzerland at the time. She had no knowledge of the difference between a freedom pass, travel card, oyster etc. Long story short, my mother gave her a couple of oysters saying that one of them is topped up and the other is empty, just touch in whichever gives a green light will work. It turns out that since she is partially sighted (only 10% vision remaining) and is on radiotherapy due to a brain tumour, she mistakenly gave my wife her freedom pass instead of one of the oysters because they were all in the same cover. When confronted by the ticket inspector, my wife told her the truth and tried to explain that she had no knowledge of the freedom pass but they obviously accused her of lying etc and took down her details. They didn't caution her or make her sign anything but she was sent a letter today saying that she boarded a bus without the correct pass/oyster etc and that she could explain her circumstances. The thing is that they put the wrong bus route number on the letter - does this mean that they cannot charge her correctly/how to proceed? Might I add, that even though tfl probably doesn't care, we are both junior doctors and would never intentionally do something as devious as fare evasion intentionally. I have proof of my absence, my mothers medical condition, letters of reference from UK and Harvard professors etc for my wife. I also have proof of the topped up oyster that was left at home, although the one that was on her had no credit in it. My wife's travel history should also show up as having only a few journeys, and the freedom pass should show my mother's usual few journeys as well. It was a London Bus in West London. I really hope you guys can help me and advise me how to proceed. Many thanks.