A few months back I was caught at Hitchin station without a ticket. I wasn't on a train, I was connecting to another to get home. It is true that I evaded the fare deliberately, but it is also true that I hadn't had a square meal in two days and needed to get to my parents to eat something and scrub up. The guy who stopped me looked through all my old tickets and scanned my Oyster and told me I was being cautioned (which bizarrely started with me being read my rights - by a guy in a First Capital Connect uniform). I thought this would be followed by a request for the £20 fine, instead FCC sent a notice of intention to prosecute to my parents' home and required me to write a statement of what happened. I wrote that I had no money and deliberately went through the barrier without a ticket. Apparently honesty is not advised these days because they seem to view this as a sure-fire win and seemed more willing to prosecute having received my admission of guilt. The fare evaded by me was £3.70 which is being claimed back plus £110 in court costs. I am self-employed and frequently poor and live in Berlin, Germany so I will have to plead guilty unless I want to fly back to attend magistrate's court. I have to inform them of my financial situation (frequently awful, sometimes great) but I have seen from other posters on here that the magistrates will not take that info into account when passing judgement. I only hope I can pay when I get the fine. Whatever happened to the £20 penalty fare? Does anyone have experience of dealing directly with FCC's Prosecutions Department?

Hi, on my first day of work experience i had to get the train to highbury and islington, getting on at my station i topped up my oyster card with a tenner and thought i wiped in passed the sensor but obviously hadn't (there aren't any barriers at my station so wouldnt have noticed). When i arrived at highbury and islington there was a woman at the foot of the stairway checking peoples oyster cards. Believing i had paid my ticket i gave her my oyster card to check and it beeped showing i hadnt paid. she started reading me my rights and told me that i had to pay a fine. I said i didn't have the means to pay it as it was on the oyster card that i thought i'd paid with and so she took my address and let me be on my way. I walked off from this a little ****ed off but i thought when the fine comes ill pay it and its done. 3 weeks later im receiving a notice of intention to prosecute saying they're taking me to court. I have no idea where this came from and its completely shocked me, i was under the impression that i'd be receiving a penalty fare in the post and now apparently i might be getting a criminal record. Please can you give me some advice as to what to do as i'm really confused and worried that if i get a criminal record it could severely damage my career, and as to why i wouldn't have recieved a penalty fare first? Thanks in advance

Hi everybody, I have spent the past four days going over all the older posts concerning similar problems and have found them to be a wealth of information and support. I have a problem with first capital connect and their likely hood to prosecute for fare evasion and I'm am going around the bend! I have not yet found any posts with my particular set of circumstances, so any help and advice would be fantastic. So I'll try and make this as concise as possible; last Friday morning I boarded the train at my local station and it was busy as usual, the doors opened and I stepped on and the first class section was just to my left. I didn't actively seek out this section it just happened to be there. I went in with three other people and sat down in one of the available seats. Before I had even looked at my paper and I don't think the train had even left the station an inspector came in and checked my ticket and the three other people who had done exactly as I had. I didn't have a valid ticket for first class (just a travel card) and should have paid the penalty fare when requested to do so by the inspector. I fully admit I was in the wrong and looking back now I can't believe I have been such an idiot, but it gets worse. One of the four paid the penalty fare straight away and I decided to try and argue my case with the other three, we all got off at the next stop with the inspector. The other couple paid their penalty fare after a few minutes arguing and left. Which is exactly what I should have done. Again the inspector asked me if I was willing to pay the penalty fare, I replied no (I will give reasons later) he then asked me my name and address and I supplied my old address. I now know that this was the worst possible thing I could have done and have been kicking myself for the past week for being so stupid. The inspector made his phone call to verify the details I gave and when he started to ask more questions about what flat number etc I told him I lied to him so he hung up his call. I apologised and offered to then pay the penalty fare but he told me I had my chance and a penalty fare was now not an option. I then supplied my correct details and he interviewed me under caution (all done correctly to the best of my recollection) and told me to expect a letter in the post detailing was action would be taken. I apologised again and he left. I am now petrified, I can't sleep and am so worried that I will get a criminal record that has the potential to destroy a career that I have worked so hard for as it requires extensive travel to the states. I can't believe that one moment of complete and utter madness on my part could cause so much trouble. The reason I initially refused to pay, and was so annoyed was because I had just paid FCC £34.50 for an overdue penalty fare two days before. I know this looks really bad for me but I promise you I am not an habitual fare evader, I am an habitual travel card forgetter! I got to the barriers at my destination station and realised that I didn't have my travel card. I spoke to a lady at the gate and she took down my details and charged me £5.50 to cover a single from where I came from and was very sympathetic. I didn't realise at the time that I was to pay the balance of £14.50 within a set time frame. A month or two later I returned from holidays and found a reminder to pay the outstanding £14.50 from this incident. As I had been away I now only had a week left to pay I tried the phone line to pay the remaining balance and got no answer and then left it a few days. I then tried the number again about 10 times over two days and each time there was no answer and even got a recorded message saying that due to heavy call volume they were no longer receiving calls. I eventually got through a day after the deadline and was obviously pretty annoyed at having to pay an additional admin fee for failing to pay on time. All this happened two days before the first class incident so I hope it goes some way to show my mentality on the day in question. I know it is not a defence to anything and everything I have done it completely my own fault. I have received two other penalty fares over the past 5 or years for forgetting my travel card. I successfully appealed one but it took about 5 letters and much more than £20 pounds worth of time and effort. So I chose not to try and appeal either of the others even though each time I had a travel card for the dates in question. Having read pretty much all the other posts on the issue I now know to wait to hear from the company and write a reply stating how incredibly sorry I am and offer to pay compensation and all admin costs and hope they settle out of court. What I was wondering was with these set of circumstances, no first class ticket, initially refusing to pay the penalty fare, lying and the previous penalty fare notices against me does anyone think I have a hope in hell of not ending up with a criminal conviction? I have had a valid travel card for all zones travelled (admittedly not always on me) for five years. Will that help? I have not yet heard from the company, would anyone recommend pre-emptive letter? On the offering to pay a settlement front, would a very large amount (££££) be more likely to be accepted or would be construed as been arrogant and trying to buy your way out of trouble? In my response letter should I try and mitigate the previous penalty fares notices at this stage as I can’t claim this is my first offence? Or not talk about them? I obviously want to keep it factual, short, apologetic and not rambling. Does anyone know if I get convicted on the most serious charge (dishonesty, fraud) will that stop me travelling to the states? I am so worried I can’t sleep or concentrate at work and am going crazy thinking about losing my job. I am usually such a happy go lucky kind of fella and would describe myself as of good character and have never got in any trouble like this before. Any other advise? Thanks in advance to anyone who takes the time to read this and I'm sorry it's so long and rambling.

I have spent the whole day in tears which normally I would solve by meeting up with a friend and talking things through over a bottle of wine but this time I really am too ashamed to tell even my closest friends. Plus they could not provide the same level of advice as the people on this forum. I have spent literally the entire day on these threads and think it's great there are people who are happy to help. What happened to me started rather innocently. I sat in the nearest available seat on a First Capital Connect train From Welwyn North to King's Cross on my way to work one morning in August and didn't worry about it as I had a monthly season ticket. This was the first time I ever encountered a conductor on one of these trains (I had started my job in London in June). They advised me I was sat in first class, although it is quite hard to tell the difference when the train is so packed - that compartment was empty in comparison, but I didn't really see how it was different to the rest of the train. I think I must have sat in those seats on previous occasions also without even realising when the rest of the train got too full. I honestly didn't think about it as I thought I had some sort of a superior ticket covering everything, because £223 is loads! They also advised my ticket only covered standard class travel - obviously not so superior Anyway, I said if that's the case I said I would upgrade and the lady said "that's 20 quid then". For some reason, instead of paying and shutting up, I decided to argue about how unfair the situation is. I got so into the frame of mind that it was "absulutely out of the question to pay £20 to upgrade to first class" - at this point that's what I thought it was, I didn't realise what they were doing was giving me a chance at paying the Penalty Charge. I believed this was so unfair when I spent so much on a monthly ticket and thought I had a right to take a seat on the train, especially as that particular carriage was much emptier than the others with free seats (now I know why... I honestly thought first class restrictions were only for long journeys, not commuter trains). When the conductor requested my details, I completely made up an address - somehow, in my stupid morning brain I thought this was the "fair" thing to do as "I clearly paid" and "did not deserve to be charged more". I am so ashamed now, it was just the pressure of the situation really and wanting to be left alone. I am not sure how I thought they were not going to check it out, but I certainly did not think this was a serious situation. I just thought it would be a bit of a laugh to see how things pan out. If by "a laugh" I mean getting questioned by the British Transport Police upon my arrival at King's Cross station and realising "oops, this is serious, I better give them my real details" then, yes, it was HILARIOUS (( I honestly don't know what was up with me that morning. I am a 26 year old girl, quite lively and generally happy-go-lucky taking things too lightly sometimes, but this was too much. So I provided my real details at that point to a female member if the British Transport Police. Luckily, st least she was sympathetic. She actually said she completely understood why I did it as the prices are ridiculous, but of course this still did not make it ok. What I am really upset about though is that at that stage, the FCC staff assured me that since I had done nothing like this ever in the past, they will not prosecute. Two months later, I am facing prosecution and because I attempted to provide false details, this is being treated as a criminal offence and I am looking at a criminal record, up to £1,000 fine and the maximum penalty can be up to 3 months in prison. Not so funny now. I have just finished my Masters degree and started a dream career in London; however, with what may happen, this could be a short-lived one. I feel so stupid for not realising the seriousness of the situation there and then. I thought along the lines of "I have paid, they can't touch me" and it was this arrogance that made everything worse. I will do my best to settle out of court, but it is serious and they have no reason to agree to that really because, as I have found out now, under the Regulation of Railways Act 1889 this is technically fraud. Such a small thing, yet it could mean that I may not be able to get a job with some companies that are strict about the checks they carry out on prospective employees, and if I do get a criminal record, I may never be able to travel to America. I am absolutely gutted and can't believe this has happened to me. Do you guys think there is anything I can do to increase my chances of settling out of court? I have realised the seriousness of doing something like that and would never dream of doing this again. My family come from a country where honesty is a big thing in our culture and in my family and they'd be so disappointed. Also I would like to go to the US one day and I can't imagine not being able to. If anyone knows anything I could do to settle out of court and what a reasonable amount would be to offer, please let me know. I was told today over the phone by the Prosecution Department that I should send this in writing asap. Any help is much appreciated and I am honestly really sorry about what I did.