It was reported recently that South West Trains were conducting a crackdown on short ticketing. Hundreds of passengers each year obtain our advice and assistance when they have been accused of fare evasion. Often this can be using a discount pass belonging to another or which they are not eligible to use, however another such offence is travelling beyond the area for which they have purchased their ticket (short ticketing) is becoming increasingly common. The article refers to fixed penalty notices, but the use of prosecutions is very common as the rail companies investigation in order to establish that the offence is often part of a pattern. Rail prosecutors look at the journey, for example from Vauxhall to Waterloo or even beyond and then review the customer’s home address. The officer is then likely to assume that the commute if from their home station where the barriers may have been open and therefore not any form of scanning. Many such offenders often fail become aware of the intended prosecution until they open their post some weeks after the reply deadline .
Case Study
We recently advised a student who was stopped by a ticket inspector on part of journey travelling from London to a station outside Cambridge where their parents lived. They had bought a ticket from Kings Cross to Finsbury Park and Royston to Cambridge, failing to pay for the middle section of this journey. The client was stopped on the train. They were not given the opportunity to pay the full journey there and then, or even a fixed penalty notice. the client was then sent a request for further information by the network, the network had investigated their Trainline account and discovered more than 20 suspected offences of short ticketing. The client was then sent a notice of intention to prosecute.
Their future employment in a highly regulated sector at risk (client predicted a 1st class degree) because of regulatory body. Having gathered supporting evidence of mitigation including a letter of remorse, we drafted detailed representations to successfully persuade the rail company that is was not in the pubic interest to proceed. Thus, the client avoided the conviction and paid a fee by way of settlement.
Please contact us if we can assist with a fare evasion issue on 0207 8373456