Surprise bus fine

[james44]

Hi

I recently received a letter from London south east, south and central courts informing me that I owed £312 and had 10 days to pay in full to avoid various punishments. The letter mainly consisted of ways to make the payment with no information on the charge, so, I phoned the information line and found out that the fine stemmed from a bus fare in Camberwell on 20.8.2010 and I had to go though my local statutory court in order to progress, I was told the fine would be frozen for 28 days to allow me to appeal.

 

So.. as far as I can remember this is what happened in 2010. For some reason I did not use/have my oyster card and paid the bus driver in cash and walked to my seat without taking the paper ticket. 5-10 minutes later 2 inspectors came onto the bus and wanted to see my ticket. I wasn't too concerned as I knew my ticket would be somewhere and the bus driver could verify that I had handed over the money. Unfortunately the paper ticket didn't turn up and the inspectors told me the drivers word was not enough (I witnessed the driver telling them I had paid and unsuccessfully looking for the ticket), they took my current address, we all got off the bus at my stop and it felt like we had come to an impasse. Eventually they said they would have to take my word for it and I left feeling the incident was resolved (which lasted until very recently).

 

I believe what has happened is the TFL chose to fine me after all but I had moved house on 22.10.2010 and received no correspondence until now. What I would like to know is:

 

1. Do I have a chance to appeal the full payment? as a student I cant afford the £312.

2. What have I missed? what is TFLs procedure, if there was an original fine that was a reasonable amount could I pay that instead? (although even that feels a little unreasonable)

3. How do I even go about approaching my local court about this, the person on the information line was not very helpful

 

I don't know if its relevant but I have had an oyster card with no penalties which I think dates back to roughly 2010 if that would help at all. Also I can prove the date I moved into a new address on 22.10.2010. Thanks for any help and I hope I'm posting in the right place and so on.

[honeybee13]

Hello there.

 

I'm sorry you haven't had any replies yet and hope that some of the forum regulars will be along later.

 

With the court, are you saying that you're going to sign a statutory declaration to have the case heard in your presence, or has something else happened please?

 

My best, HB

[Old-CodJA]

Hi

I recently received a letter from London south east, south and central courts informing me that I owed £312 and had 10 days to pay in full to avoid various punishments. The letter mainly consisted of ways to make the payment with no information on the charge, so, I phoned the information line and found out that the fine stemmed from a bus fare in Camberwell on 20.8.2010 and I had to go though my local statutory court in order to progress, I was told the fine would be frozen for 28 days to allow me to appeal.

 

So.. as far as I can remember this is what happened in 2010. For some reason I did not use/have my oyster card and paid the bus driver in cash and walked to my seat without taking the paper ticket. 5-10 minutes later 2 inspectors came onto the bus and wanted to see my ticket. I wasn't too concerned as I knew my ticket would be somewhere and the bus driver could verify that I had handed over the money. Unfortunately the paper ticket didn't turn up and the inspectors told me the drivers word was not enough (I witnessed the driver telling them I had paid and unsuccessfully looking for the ticket), they took my current address, we all got off the bus at my stop and it felt like we had come to an impasse. Eventually they said they would have to take my word for it and I left feeling the incident was resolved (which lasted until very recently).

 

I believe what has happened is the TFL chose to fine me after all but I had moved house on 22.10.2010 and received no correspondence until now. What I would like to know is:

 

1. Do I have a chance to appeal the full payment? as a student I cant afford the £312.

2. What have I missed? what is TFLs procedure, if there was an original fine that was a reasonable amount could I pay that instead? (although even that feels a little unreasonable)

3. How do I even go about approaching my local court about this, the person on the information line was not very helpful

 

I don't know if its relevant but I have had an oyster card with no penalties which I think dates back to roughly 2010 if that would help at all. Also I can prove the date I moved into a new address on 22.10.2010. Thanks for any help and I hope I'm posting in the right place and so on.

 

 

TfL will not have imposed any fine, only the Courts can do that. It appears that TfL issued a Summons for not having a valid ticket and failing to pay, this was heard in your absence and the Magistrates found you guilty, imposed a fine & costs and you haven't paid anything.

 

If you are adamant that you were not reported and know nothing about this matter, you need to go to your local Magistrates Court and make a Statutory Declaration on oath that you truthfully know nothing about the prosecution..

 

Do try to recall exactly what, if anything, you can about the incident in 2010, whether you received any indication of prosecution etc. because making an untruthful Statutory Declaration can be very much more costly in the long run.

Edited March 4, 2013 by Old-CodJA