Rail Fare Evasion Dropped Birmingham Magistrates Court 2024

We represented a client who was summoned to court contrary to S.5(3) (a) of the Regulation of Railways Act 1989 as amended by section 84 (2) of the Transport Act 1962 and Section 18 of the British Railways Act 1970.

Our client contacted our firm following being summoned to court because of an unpaid fare. Our client was devastated as she had carried out her own research and found that she was at risk of being hit with a criminal record which would have jeopardised her future career prospects. Our client was a recent graduate from University.

The offence took place in the morning where our client had attended her local train station. Our client’s mobile phone was low on battery life and eventually switched off. Our client stated that she would book her travel ticket on her mobile phone or pay for other means of travel via the contactless method on her iPhone. But on the day of travel our client was unable to do so due to her phone being switched off.

Our client was getting late for work and decided to board the train to charge her phone and pay for her ticket whilst on board. Our client was unable to find a seat on the busy train and remained standing for the duration of her journey. Once our client arrived at the train station, she was approached by the ticket inspector who had asked our client to present her ticket. Our client explained her situation and presented her phone showing that it had switched off on her whilst purchasing a ticket and was unable to buy a ticket unless her phone switched on. The ticket inspector asked for our client’s details and allowed her to leave the train station.

Transport investigations had issued proceedings in the magistrate’s court to prosecute our client. Our client had contacted us close to her first hearing. We had an urgent private consultation with our client discussing the law and considering the circumstances of the incident and her situation.  

After consultation with our client, we made strong representations to the prosecutor at Transport Investigations Limited right away requesting for the matter to be discontinued at court. The prosecutor at Transport Investigations Limited considered our representations and accepted that a conviction would have a detrimental and disproportionate repercussion on our client’s future. We persuaded the prosecutor to offer an alternative out-of-court penalty.

If you are taken to court by rail companies, please do get in touch to discuss making written representations to avoid court proceedings.