Help! I was stopped using my wifes travel card

[Bashiru]

HI With,

 

I happen to find myself in exactly thesame situation, can you please share your experience on how you managed to convince the presecution team to reach an out of court settlement.

Thank you

[sailor sam]

HI With,

 

I happen to find myself in exactly thesame situation, can you please share your experience on how you managed to convince the presecution team to reach an out of court settlement.

Thank you

 

You need to start a new thread explaining your situation where you will get specific advice to your case.

 

Please Note

 

The advice I offer will be based on the information given by the person needing it. All my advice is based on my experiences and knowledge gained in working in the motor and passenger transport industries in various capacities. Although my advice will always be sincere, it should be used as guidence only.

 

I would always urge to seek face to face professional advice for clarification prior to taking any action.

 

Please click my reputation 'star' button at the bottom of my profile window on the left if you found my advice useful.

[Bashiru]

Ok......Many thanks Sam

[Bashiru]

Hi guys,

 

I was stopped last week using my wife's student oyster card, we did not know it was an offence talkless of being a criminal case. Based on my research, I know we will have to wait for the letter of notification from TFL before we can make any moves but I will rather be prepared before hand. My fear is that a criminal record would lead to looose of job and destroy my career. I am hoping that people with similar experience will share it but the ones that ended well and those that were not so lucky. Many thanks in advance.

Bash

[rebel11]

Hi bashiru

 

Welcome to CAG

 

The guys will be happy to advise as soon as they are available.

 

Please let us know how your problem has been resolved, it could help other people.

[wtlh]

You need to wait for the first letter.

 

They would normally not pay much attention to your pleas until a summons have been issued. You will need to provide proofs of how the criminal record will destroy your life to TFL for them to consider out of court settlement on exceptional grounds. They are quite prosecution minded speaking from our experience. It do have to be specific, like an official letter from the company proving you will be fired etc.

[Bashiru]

Thx With,

 

Do you mind sharing how you presented your case to avoid court proceedings? Moreover, at what point did you get to settle out of court? was it while still at TFL or at the prececutor level?

 

Sorry for the many questions, I am just trying to be prepared ahead of time and consider all possible options while waiting for the first letter.

 

Thanks in advance

[rambo]

IMO, TFL will prosecute.

And rightly so.

[wtlh]

Thx With,

 

Do you mind sharing how you presented your case to avoid court proceedings? Moreover, at what point did you get to settle out of court? was it while still at TFL or at the prececutor level?

 

Sorry for the many questions, I am just trying to be prepared ahead of time and consider all possible options while waiting for the first letter.

 

Thanks in advance

 

 

You will just have to wait for the first letter. We reached out of court settlement after the summons has been issued.

 

We basically followed the advice given here. Wrote a letter explaining our mistake and sincerely apologised after we received the first letter. We did this again after we have received the summons but was refused point-blank and they said they would reconsider only if we give them clear evidence that my wife will be ruined by court action.

 

This we did, we managed to obtain an official letter proving the detrimental effect of criminal record to my wife.

 

At the same time (as plan B) we consulted a solicitor and had called for TFL to provide witnesses (the evidences on the summons were self-contradictory and the inspector basically cherry picked our statements to make us appear in much worse light). I also began to gather evidences to prove it was not our intention to avoid the fare. It was going to be a huge gamble in court but we basically had nothing to lose if TFL had pressed ahead with the charges. Our lives will be ruined, and it was a sincere misunderstanding of the rules.

 

Luckily it never came to that. TFL agreed to settle due to exceptional circumstances. And we have learned a really big lesson, and we became aware of a lot of 'hidden' rules and regulations in all walks of life.

 

Advice: NEVER IGNORE THE SMALL PRINTS before agreeing to anything, AND DON'T TAKE COMMON SENSE FOR GRANTED, a lot of rules are against common sense. If not careful, you could end up in deep s**** that you can only blame yourself.

Edited April 2, 2012 by wtlh

[wtlh]

EDIT: I just realised that your case is different to ours. If your are using a valid student oyster (with a discounted season ticket) of your wife's then you cannot use the arguments we have used, as the rules of non-trasferablility for the discount is clearly stated on the student card application form, and the season ticket when you buy them clearly indicates it is discounted.

 

So you will just have to be very sorry and give any mitigating circumstances which may make them to think of you in a less hash way. You will probably have to prove anything you say with evidences. My own experience is that the guys in TFL have heard far too many excuses day in and day out that they become naturally skeptical to anything anyone says. So evidences are essential.

 

Do note however that if you are using it as Pay-As-You-Go, then there should be no case. You are allowed to use it this way. The Pay-as-you-go price is not discounted, and if you tabbed in correctly you will be paying the correct fare for the journey, and it is irrelevant whose money you paid the ticket with. The student oyster in this case only serves as a carrier of money, like a wallet. The experts can correct me if I am wrong on this point.

[Bashiru]

Thanks so much for your effort With, I will now hang on and wait for the first letter.

[Old-CodJA]

The following are extracts from the Terms & Conditions relating to Student Oyster Photocards:

 

42. Your 18+ Student Oyster photocard, and any season ticket held on it, are for your use only.

 

43. An 18+ Student Oyster photocard can only be used by the person whose photograph and name appears on it. If you allow someone else to use your photocard, we may withdraw your Student-rate travel concession and the person using your photocard may be subject to a penalty fare and/or prosecution.

 

 

These rules make clear that a Student Oyster cannot be used by a third party.

[Bashiru]

Thanks Old-CodJA,

I know this may sound stupid but you wont believe it that we did not know it is not transferable, my wife was excited when she got the student discount oyster card and we just continued using it like any other travel card. This is quite unfortunate for us as we have to pay the price for our stupidity so dearly, so sad. With what I have read here, I am not even sure of what to do after we get the first letter because it doesn't appear that anyone will believe it was a genuine mistake on our part. How I wish we had known.........

[Bashiru]

Hi guys, any ideas at to when initial letter from TFL should arrive? I was stopped on the 23rd of March and have not heard from TFL since then, i was of the opinion that it takes about 6 weeks.

 

Cheers

 

Bash

[weallmademistakes]

It's probably quite busy right now (with the Olympics coming up) so maybe it'll come in the summer...can be up to 6months

 

 

Hi guys, any ideas at to when initial letter from TFL should arrive? I was stopped on the 23rd of March and have not heard from TFL since then, i was of the opinion that it takes about 6 weeks.

 

Cheers

 

Bash

[Bashiru]

HI Guys,

 

Can anyone help me with the TFL prosecution team (the team that sends the initial intent to prosecute letter) contact details please? I was stopped on the 23rd of March using my wife's +18 oyster card and have not heard from TFL ever since. My worry is that I may be procecuted without being giving the chance to defend myself as I have noticed a few cases where people do not get the first letter of intent to procecute before being taken to court. I am planning to give them a call to check if they have any information for me.

Bash

[Old-CodJA]

The best thing that you can do is to wait. You will need the reference that is allocated to your specific case in order to prevent confusion and that will be on the letter when it arrives.

 

It is unlikely, but possible, that the inspector did not complete the report correctly and if that's the case you will be unlikely to hear anything.

 

Can I also suggest that you stick to just one thread when posting a question on your case. You have posted the same question on at least 3 threads and it becomes hard to follow replies and may even result in you getting no help at all.

[honeybee13]

Hello Bashiru.

 

I've removed your duplicate posts of #16 from the other threads. As OC says, it doesn't help anyone if you copy and paste the same question and hijack other people's threads and I don't think it will get you any more answers.

 

I can understand that you're anxious because we see this all the time, but this is between you and TfL. All we ever advise is to be patient and wait for the letter, then come back to us if you need further advice on it.

 

My best, HB

[Bashiru]

My appologies for the duplicate posting, didn't mean to be a nuisance . It is just that I am a bit curious particularly since I read about someone that got a letter to appear in court straight without the initial notification to prosecute and also due to the possibility of mail missing in transit. Thanks for the advice anyway, though still don't mind doing a check on TFL if anybody has got their contact details.

Thanks

 

Bash

[honeybee13]

Hello again.

 

I don't think letters go astray that often, unless you think TfL have the wrong address for instance?

 

I'm not sure what you mean about doing a check on TfL. If they haven't allocated a reference to your case yet, they may well not be able to find the papers.

 

HB

[Bashiru]

Thanks honeybee13, I believe the inspector got the correct address as he copied it out directly from my driver's license. I guess I don't have a choice at this point but to play the waiting game though I was hoping someone from the forum that have recieved the later in the past could furnish me with the contact details.

Cheers

Bash

[honeybee13]

I expect you could find the contact details online if you want to try getting in touch with them. TfL have a website.

 

HB

[Bashiru]

Sincerely speaking, I was okay waiting until I read the thread: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?348413-summons-to-court-**-SETTLED-**

Particularly the statement “on march the 16th I walked through a oystercard touch in/out assuming my card had enough money on it ( listening to music so didnt hear the beep) and it didnt- got stopped by a ticket inspector and on saturday the 28th of april I got a court summons to appear for the 16th of may” which implied that he did not get the first letter of intent to prosecute. I hope you guys will now understand why I am being a bit apprehensive.

I did try calling TFL (four different times) but the customer services don’t seem to know anything about, one of them even said they had to business prosecuting me but rather the owner of the +18 card (which is obviously wrong base of what I have read so far in this forum). Like I said I will just relax and wait for the letter. Many thanks for all the advice and kind words.

Bash

[Old-CodJA]

Sincerely speaking, I was okay waiting until I read the thread: http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?348413-summons-to-court-**-SETTLED-**

Particularly the statement “on march the 16th I walked through a oystercard touch in/out assuming my card had enough money on it ( listening to music so didnt hear the beep) and it didnt- got stopped by a ticket inspector and on saturday the 28th of april I got a court summons to appear for the 16th of may” which implied that he did not get the first letter of intent to prosecute. I hope you guys will now understand why I am being a bit apprehensive.

I did try calling TFL (four different times) but the customer services don’t seem to know anything about, one of them even said they had to business prosecuting me but rather the owner of the +18 card (which is obviously wrong base of what I have read so far in this forum). Like I said I will just relax and wait for the letter. Many thanks for all the advice and kind words.

Bash

 

 

Frequently there are claims that letters were not received, but in reality the percentage of non-deliveries by Royal Mail is miniscule. Whilst it is possible that very ocassionally one might not be delivered, much more often a letter has been received and ignored or lost and forgotten about until the prosecution notice arrives.

[Bashiru]

Hi Guys, can anyone help me with the TFL prosecutions department's phone number? I have checked the internet with no luck, also tried calling TFL's customers services and no help as well.

Bash