The charge is Bye Law No 18(2) - failing to hand over a valid rail ticket for inspection.

And what is the worst case scenario, could the costs escalate and would I have to pay them? Would I also need representation? I just can't believe that it has come to this. It's totally ridiculous.

To the person who said that the card shows on records and there is no grey area - This is not true. I have a contactless bank card and it causes my card to throw an error when trying to be read and I've spoken to TFL who have no record of it showing on my Oyster even thuogh it's happened many times.

Hi, can anyone please give some advice on the following matter. In the first week of December I was stopped by a ticket inspector who, when trying to read my Oyster card, said I didn't have a valid ticket. It turns out I didn't and my Oyster hadn't tapped in due to a new bank card I'd put in my wallet a couple of days before. I'd casually walked straight through the gates tapping in as usual. At my destination I was stopped by a the inspector and asked to pay an on the spot fine. I explained what must have happened and said that I didn't have the cash to pay the fine so would wait for the fine in the post. The letter arrived just before Xmas while I was on vacation. It stated intention to prosecute, asked for my version of events on the day and gave 7 days for reply. There was no mention of a fine. I called the prosecutions dept on return from vacation, who said no action had been taken and that I should reply. I responded to the letter In the first week of January giving my version of events and 4 days later I received a summons to court with no reference to my letter. I've read the summons, and the statement which I signed on the day (in a hurry) and it bears little resemblance to actual conversation. The man asked me to sign to verrify my details, which I did, and left. After looking at the copy of the statement that came with the summons to court, I can now see that the signature also verffiies I agreed with what he wrote down. He basically mislead me. Some of the differences were that on the statement, the inspector wrote that I didn't have the means to pay the fare when in fact this referred to the fine. He had checked my Oyster and knew there was ample credit. He also misquotes me several other times but they are minor. I'm now being prosecuted for not producing a ticket for inspection (that's what it says on the letter) and if I want to plead guilty I can pay the costs plus fare which is £113. I do not want to plead guilty as don't want a criminal record. This is an honest moment of misfortune and I am not a criminal. I had oyster credit on the day in question and made no attempt to avoid paying. I offered to pay when the inspector informed me my Oyster hadn't validated however this is not on the Inspector's statement either. I'm a regular traveler of this route whis is recorded on my Oyster records and I have not suddenly started to try evading fares. What can I do here? J

True I will be sending the prove it letter on Monday. I'll let you guys know what they come back with. Thanks.

No it said nothing like that. It just gave a refernce, specified British Gas an amount and said they would be performing a full Status Enquiry on me. Cheers

Thanks for the replies. I might just ignore it, but what will happen if I do, will they take further action. I don't want people knocking on my door. I guess the other optionis to call BG. Will they still have records for this kind of thing, if indeed it ever existed? Thanks again.

I have just received a letter from EOS solutions stating that I owe them £300. It says it's with regards to a British gas account. The letter is addressed directly to me. I do not have a Brisity Gas account and the only thing i can think of is that it could be from when I rented shared accomodation at university. It's also disturbing that they have my name and address in the first place. Could this be for a differnt person of the same name maybe as all they have is a name? Not sure what action to take? Thanks