I wrote a final grovelling letter to FCC a day after the last post and then today I received a letter from a manager asking to contact him. So I called straight back and I had a surreal conversation where he asked me what I was prepared to offer to settle out of court. The figures spoken about in the court summons letter were £110 costs and £18 for unpaid ticket - but the onus was very much on me to come up with a figure - so got my card out there and offered an arbitrary but round number of £200. Don't know if this was reasonable or not but he took the money pretty quickly without having to seek any authority and I am free to carry on my life in peace! No court, thank goodness. Thanks for the advice on sending a letter at this late stage as I was pretty close to accepting going court, but this letter and payment seemed to do the trick. Am intrigued to know what exactly got me off this - but maybe need to count my luck and of course I couldn't have done it without your help - so eternally grateful.

Thanks all - really appreciated and thank you for spending time in replying. I have sent final grovel letter to FCC and will keep fingers crossed that I don't get to court.... Will keep you posted.

Sorry, yes, a very apologetic letter was also sent.

Hi, Thought I would write back giving an update on where we are at and to ask a few further questions. My husband did get his season ticket back and all day tickets refunded without interview. However, I have received a court summons and a court date for a months time with an estimate of £110 for court costs and cost of purchasing the ticket. They are charging me with being unable to present a valid ticket for travel on the train service and have given me 3 options: guilty and absent; guilty and present; and not guilty. Are there any options to prevent me actually going to court now I have received the letter? And also will my outcome be lessened if I attend - I am so, so worried and stressed out by the thought of going to court that I am wondering whether I could write pleading guilty and say that I will be absent? Any thought would be really appreciated and again thanks for your help so far.

Hi, Thanks for the quick replies! To answer the questions that have been asked: - my husbands season ticket is an annual FCC paper ticket, he has nothing loaded on his oyster other than cash. His railcard wallet contained both his season ticket and his oyster, but I was presenting the paper ticket and the inspector only confiscated the season ticket/photocard and returned the oyster. - I stated that I had a ticket at home and didn't specify what type, but given the inspector checked via my name he musts have assumed that I meant a season ticket. From what everyone's said above it sounds like I should keep that background to a minimum and state that I showed my husband's season ticket when under pressure and that it was a terrible error of judgement that has never happened before and will never be repeated. Just a couple of other questions about the letter: 1) Should I state why I had my husband's ticket in the first place (that I intended to use his oyster prepay when in London) to show I didn't set out intending to use his FCC season ticket? Or should I just say that under pressure I presented his ticket as I hadn't purchased one of my own? 2) Before I had the children I worked in London for 2 years and always held FCC monthly season tickets - should I state this to help show that this was a one-off? Many thanks, I really appreciate all your comments and attempts to lesson the worry!

Hi all, I'm a housewife and mother of twin 2 year old children and plead for some advice from the experts in this forum! I travelled into London for the first time since the children were born recently and was a total idiot. Since my husband was staying at home looking after the children I borrowed his ticket wallet so I could use his pre-pay Oyster card when i got to London. I believe (and please correct if this is wrong) that there isn't a problem with using someone else's Oyster for just purchasing single tube tickets (there's no season ticket or anything other than cash on it). The idiotic part is that when trying to get into London, since the FCC train was pulling into the station when I was trying to buy a ticket I ran to get on it rather than finishing queueing and getting on the next train. While I was on the train a ticket inspector came round and the next idiotic thing I did was to produce my husband's ticket rather than just say that I didn't have one. From that point on things got worse, I was cautioned and as I'm a very sensitive person I completely panicked and was on the verge of having a panic attack - it was SO awful, I've done anything like this before and felt like a total criminal. I told the inspector that I had picked up the wrong ticket when I left the house at which point he checked and verified that I didn't have a season ticket of my own. At that point he confiscated my husband's season ticket and photocard and I was asked to sign a form that contained my inaccurate explanation. In fear and panic I signed rather than trying to correct anything and was told to expect a letter of prosecution. I've just received the notice of intention to prosecute from FCC. They state that they intend to take the matter to magistrates court and that I have to reply to their letter within 7 days detailing what happened from my point of view. They list the details of the alleged offence as: "18(2) failing to hand over a valid rail ticket for inspection" I have a few questions about how best to respond to this as I've never been in a position like this before and am very scared about what could happen to me: 1) From reading other threads I'm surprised that they've charged me under 18(2) which doesn't reflect fare evasion - is this true, and should I therefore respond purely admitting, apologising, and offering to reimburse for not having a valid ticket rather than referencing showing my husband's ticket? 2) My husband hasn't yet applied for a replacement season ticket, should he hold off doing this until my issue is resolved? Presumably he'll have to apply at some point to get it back or will it just be returned automatically? I've seen other threads with sample letters of reply, but I would really appreciate any help since I haven't been charged with what I was expecting and so am unsure how to proceed. I also don't have long to reply, so would be really grateful for any swift responses. Many thanks and apologies for the length of my post, I'm just so worried about it all and the thought of getting a criminal record (I'm intending to become a teaching assistant and fear this will be impossible if the prosecution goes ahead).