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    • Just to clear it up, sorry I don't make sense sometimes. I have paid £4000 £1200 of that was suppose to clear the £1200 debt.   Meaning I have sent a extra £2800 on top of my normal mainternance money.   Thank you
    • Try CPR 31.15 Possibly but a party is not compelled to disclose any documents pre allocation
    • Hi, I shown my key worker a letter that was sent to me saying that I owe £1200, she setup a standing order around 2021, this was to pay back money I owed, with my mental health status I have had complex issues to deal with and I just simply forgot about this standing order so it has been running for about 3.5 years acording to my key worker, anyway I'm not worried about the money that was sent that I call a overpayment, it went towards supporting my child's household so I am just happy with that, I am a little sad that I am being told I still owe this £1200, I have sent bank statements over 3 years worth but they have not taken away this £1200 bill and still say I owe it   Thank you
    • She did try contacting EON in the early days of the debt but they refused to speak to her because she could not pass the security checks. She didn't know the answers on an account she hadn't opened?   I also saw this article recently which could be what has happended here: Debt collection agencies in the UK are using fair means or foul to link people to an address where an unpaid debt has been run up, sometimes years after they have moved out The Guardian Anna Tims Mon 22 Apr 2024 The letter from the debt collection agency arrived out of the blue, and it was intimidating. It informed Joshua Simpson* that he owed £2,212 to Octopus Energy, and accused him of ignoring previous requests to settle the bill. If he did not stump up within 14 days, he was told, further action would be taken to recover the money. Simpson checked his Octopus account – it was in credit. Then he noticed the address where the debt had been accrued between 2022 and 2023. It was his childhood home – which his family had sold 18 years previously. "Since I was only 16 when we left the property, I was astonished that they'd linked my name [to it]," he says. "The debt collection agency insisted I provide a tenancy agreement to prove how long I've lived at my current address. I couldn't, since we bought our home. "They are now actively pursuing me for this debt, causing me a huge amount of stress. We are about to remortgage, and if this debt prevents us switching to a better deal, we will face real financial hardship." Simpson had been sucked into the shadowy world of "identity tracing", whereby investigators recruited by creditors seek to locate individuals who have moved home without paying their bills. It is an unregulated sector where anyone can set up as an agent in a back room without a licence, or scrutiny, and use fair means or foul to identify debtors. Reputable companies join a trade association that operates a code of practice, but membership is not mandatory, and mistakes are common. Last year, a teenage boy was chased for a debt of more than £900 by debt collectors acting for the energy company Ovo. A "trace agent" had somehow linked him to the debt because his parents had previously rented the property in question. An investigation by the Observer established that the debt had been run up by a subsequent tenant. The consequences of mistaken identity can be catastrophic. Individuals who are erroneously linked to a debt face, at worst, court action, bailiffs and a ruined credit rating. At best, they can endure weeks of stress and paperwork in order to prove they are not the debtor. It is estimated that 20m identity traces are made in the UK every year, many on behalf of companies that are owed money. Personal data is often obtained from credit reference agencies, which record applications for credit, and details are supposed to be verified with several different sources before being used for debt enforcement. In practice, however, this does not always happen. Simpson's details had been passed along a chain of intermediaries before the demand was issued. Octopus had given the unpaid account to a debt collection agent, which had contracted a tracing service, GBG, to find the debtor................ Full Article: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/oct/04/a-cry-for-help-energy-providers-play-the-villain-in-dramas-to-chill-the-blood ..............The Financial Ombudsman Service, which investigates complaints about financial firms, states that debt collection agents have to produce convincing evidence to link an individual to a debt, rather than rely on names, addresses and birth dates. According to the trade association, the Institute of Professional Investigators, an unknown number of investigators and trace agents are operating below the radar. Many more are merely inept, as data protection compliance training is not mandatory. "We have been campaigning for many, many years to try to get all private investigators regulated," says secretary general Glyn Evans.
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Annual Season Ticket holder needs help!!


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Hi,

 

I hold a gold card on South West Trains which I currently pay £4,224 a year for. One day around 6 weeks ago I forgot my wallet and didn't realise until I was on the train as there are no barriers at my station and it was around 6.30am (still slightly sleepy).

 

The guard was quite friendly and issued me with a penalty fare but said this would be wiped if i went into the station I kindly thanked the guard and went on with my journey (sleeping).

 

I completely forgot about this until I received a letter stating I owe IRCAS £93, £63 for the journey and £30 in admin fees. What bothers me is I was sent no reminder of this ticket and would have therefore gone into the station or written them a letter to say I had a valid season ticket. It now states I am outside of the appeal time.

 

I just feel I pay a lot of money to South West Trains to be treated like this, Is there anything I can do?

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You must nicely ask South West Trains to remit the charge. Most (not all) of the time, these people try to be reasonable, and if you can demonstrate that you had paid for the journey in question, they're not going to look for an argument.

 

Good luck :-)

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Hi,

 

I hold a gold card on South West Trains which I currently pay £4,224 a year for. One day around 6 weeks ago I forgot my wallet and didn't realise until I was on the train as there are no barriers at my station and it was around 6.30am (still slightly sleepy).

 

The guard was quite friendly and issued me with a penalty fare but said this would be wiped if i went into the station I kindly thanked the guard and went on with my journey (sleeping).

 

I completely forgot about this until I received a letter stating I owe IRCAS £93, £63 for the journey and £30 in admin fees. What bothers me is I was sent no reminder of this ticket and would have therefore gone into the station or written them a letter to say I had a valid season ticket. It now states I am outside of the appeal time.

 

I just feel I pay a lot of money to South West Trains to be treated like this, Is there anything I can do?

 

Yes, it's perhaps unfortunate that it has got this fare, but as FxFiqXSKXMFF says, you can only ask them to remit the penalty.

 

Sadly, they don't have to agree, but I would hope they will be reasonable.

 

The reason they don't have to agree is because you would have been handed a printed penalty fare notice advising that you must respond within 21 days and it seems that you did not do so. No reminders are issued in these circumstances.

 

I would write an apologetic letter for forgetting to respond within the stipulated time and ask them to consider this was a one-off incident of forgetfulness in relation to your annual ticket.

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Why do you feel badly treated?

You forgot your ticket, then later you forgot to deal with the penalty notice by simply sending in a copy of your season ticket.

 

Why should they pay for your mistakes?

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Yes, it's perhaps unfortunate that it has got this fare, but as FxFiqXSKXMFF says, you can only ask them to remit the penalty.

 

Sadly, they don't have to agree, but I would hope they will be reasonable.

 

The reason they don't have to agree is because you would have been handed a printed penalty fare notice advising that you must respond within 21 days and it seems that you did not do so. No reminders are issued in these circumstances.

 

I would write an apologetic letter for forgetting to respond within the stipulated time and ask them to consider this was a one-off incident of forgetfulness in relation to your annual ticket.

 

Would there be any benefit in stressing that you did already have a valid ticket (albeit not with you), and as you hadn't responded in time, would they consider accepting the £30 (admin fee), as a measure of your contrition for your forgetfulness, and that you'd do your best to avoid similar happening again, and would they consider waiving the 'fare' portion of the charge?

 

Old-Codja, any views on which would more likely be accepted? A request to remit the whole lot? or payment of the admin fee?

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In practice they can insist on the fare because the Byelaw offence is 'Fail to show a valid ticket'. Not 'fail to hold' or 'fail to pay', but fail to show a valid ticket on demand.

 

Failure to pay or successfully appeal the notice means they could proceed to prosecution. The company will normally expect to recoup the fare and their admin costs because if they charge the strict liability offence it is relatively simple to prove and they will normally get their costs awarded too.

 

Although that is the case, I personally think it a bit harsh in the case of an annual season ticket holder, but at the end of the day it is your responsibility to show a valid ticket and your responsibility to answer the notice, no one else has failed to comply with the rules

 

I suggest asking them to waive the charge in this case, but if they refuse (which they are entitled to do) then offer the fare plus £10 as a contribution toward their costs.

 

Good luck

Edited by Old-CodJA
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Cant really add to what has been said, the PF system allows for instances of forgetting your season ticket (2 a year with most TOC's) but it is down to you to appeal the notice, why should the TOC bear the costs of having to chase you when at the end of the day you forgot to bring your ticket?

Views expressed in this forum by me are my own personal opinion and you take it on face value! I make any comments to the best of my knowledge but you take my advice at your own risk.

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