Court Summons for Fare Evasion - want to settle out of court

[shinni]

Hi Everyone,

 

I'm in a bit if a sticky situation. I was on my way to work from a fairly busy railway station to a central London train station. The station I was traveling from has Oyster Card barriers, however, on that day they happened to be open. I have a pay as you go Oyster Card and tapped on the barrier. Now, as far as I'm aware the barrier didn't give the usual message of "Seek Assistance" - in fact I don't remember it giving a message at all. If it had done, i would have turned back around and topped up my card.

 

Thinking everything was ok I traveled to the central london station where i was caught by the ticket inspectors. I was adamant that i wouldn't pay the fine and long story short - i have now received a summons.

 

This is a the tricky part and incredibly stupid part and i don't know what to do. The address details i provided to the ticket inspector were details of my parent's house where i was living a couple of years ago. The inspector wanted a verifiable address and I haven't updated my driving licence yet so i showed him the driving licence and he spoke to someone on the phone and it all checked out ok. Just to clarify, i honestly wasn't trying to deceive them, it just that i get some of my mail at my parent's house anyway and every time i've tried to update my driving licence address details on the DVLA site there always seems to be a problem...not sure why, but needless to say, I am very disorganised and haven't got around to updating my details yet.

 

Now the summons only refers Bye-Law 18(1) of the Transport Act 2005. No mention of false address charges. Do I need to tell them? Should i just plead guilty and get it over with? If they find out that i gave an address isn't my current address can they prosecute me for that also?

 

I would like to settle out of court, but that would mean having to write a letter with my address. Will they able to charge me with giving false details now? Obviously i don't want a criminal record. Wish i'd just paid the penalty fare now!!

 

Please advise

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

I hope the forum guys will be along later or tomorrow with advice for you.

 

My best, HB

[shinni]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

I hope the forum guys will be along later or tomorrow with advice for you.

 

My best, HB

 

Thank you HB

[Kaykay]

I'm in a bit if a sticky situation. I was on my way to work from a fairly busy railway station to a central London train station. The station I was traveling from has Oyster Card barriers, however, on that day they happened to be open. I have a pay as you go Oyster Card and tapped on the barrier. Now, as far as I'm aware the barrier didn't give the usual message of "Seek Assistance" - in fact I don't remember it giving a message at all. If it had done, i would have turned back around and topped up my card.

 

Thinking everything was ok I traveled to the central london station where i was caught by the ticket inspectors. I was adamant that i wouldn't pay the fine and long story short - i have now received a summons.

If you "tapped" the Oyster Card on the Oyster Reader then you should get a print out of your journey if you still have your Oyster Card or should be included in the summons sent to you. It would be good to know what message was recorded when you "tapped" in.

 

This is a the tricky part and incredibly stupid part and i don't know what to do. The address details i provided to the ticket inspector were details of my parent's house where i was living a couple of years ago. The inspector wanted a verifiable address and I haven't updated my driving licence yet so i showed him the driving licence and he spoke to someone on the phone and it all checked out ok. Just to clarify, i honestly wasn't trying to deceive them, it just that i get some of my mail at my parent's house anyway and every time i've tried to update my driving licence address details on the DVLA site there always seems to be a problem...not sure why, but needless to say, I am very disorganised and haven't got around to updating my details yet.

Whilst it is wrong for you not to have updated your record, going by your unique explanation above there should be no live issue there for you to worry so much about.

 

Now the summons only refers Bye-Law 18(1) of the Transport Act 2005. No mention of false address charges. Do I need to tell them? Should i just plead guilty and get it over with? If they find out that i gave an address isn't my current address can they prosecute me for that also?

See my comments above on address. You can write them to let them know of your current address otherwise communication will continue to be on your old address.

Nobody can advice you to plead guilty for an offense you genuinely believe you have not committed.

I would like to settle out of court, but that would mean having to write a letter with my address. Will they able to charge me with giving false details now? Obviously i don't want a criminal record. Wish i'd just paid the penalty fare now!!

 

Please advise

Should you wish to pay the penalty fare (which is entirely your decision) you can still write to the prosecution, explain your case and reasons why you wanted the case not to continue at the court of law.

[king12345]

Sounds strange that you were stopped at your destination before exiting.

 

Did you pass the barrier behind someone else without touching your oyster card?

 

If you had touched your oyster on exit, you would have been charged the maximum fare,

in any case the gate would have opened and the inspector would have not stopped you.

 

The address you disclosed is your correspondence address, so good enough,

as long as you get your mail from there