Thanks Wriggler7 for your comments - very interesting questions and comments. I have already sent off my comments for review to the Revenue Protection Prosecution office (I probably would have changed the wording after reading previous posts from these forums but it was a reasoned argument not a rant!). I may well have travelled in on the 11th but this would have been under a seperate set of out/return Carnet tickets. I think it's important to state that I did not intentionally alter the date of the ticket in any way which is why I am so frustrated with my situation i.e. it's possible at 6.30 in the morning when the ticket was written I may have overwritten a number to make it more legible (I've seen the thermal ticket related posts and trouble with writting on these tickets) but I have to be clear and say that my intention was never to alter the ticket date from a 1 to a 9 as has been claimed. I had two opportunities to pass the gate when I was challenged. I was pig headed in that I knew I had not altered my ticket as was being claimed. The first time the ticket staff member said I had altered the ticket but he would let me through this time - I insisted I had not changed the date and the inspector then sought advice from another inspector. The second time was when I was told I should pay for a new ticket. Again I refused as I found some injustice in paying further for a ticket I had already purchased. Although in retrospect this seems the wrong approach (especially after reading some of the posts on this forum) I believed that as I had not made the alterations I would be let through and could make my complaints about the whole thing to the customer services department. I didn't think I would be facing potential court action or else I would have let it go at that stage. I don't have any history of fare evasion and I've been travelling into London on Chiltern Railways for over four year now without incident. I would like this case to just go away. Having read the posts in this forum I've been exposed to a whole new culture of public transport prosecutions. I can't see that the consumer is a winner in any of these cases. In my case although I am innocent of making the changes alleged the 'mud has been slung' and Chiltern Railways obviously believe they have a case against me. I hope the case is dropped by the Prosecution team. All I really have is the fact that I know I did not make the changes alleged. I am very careful with my carnet tickets taking two fresh tickets out the night before I travel and throwing away the used return in the evening (Saunderton station is unmanned). Thanks Old-codJA for your comments - unfortunately I wasn't sharp enough to read the code when the ticket machine rejected the ticket. At the time of the incident there was no claim made that I had re-used the ticket it all focussed around the altering of the date on the Carnet ticket. As noted above I write the dates on the Carnet ticket in the morning at home prior to travel so it would have been the first time that the ticket would have been presented to the ticket machine.

I have recieved a notice from the revenue collection agency giving me the opportunity to report on my incident. I was at Marylebone station on my return leg (outbound went without incident). My ticket wouldn't go through the turnstyle (as is often the case). when I presented it to the railway staff I was questioned about the date I had entered on my Carnet ticket. I have a biro pen which does work on these tickets and to me the date was pretty clear. Although I did not in any way change the date, my ticket was seized and I was given a warrant to travel/notice of ticket irregularity (after a fairly lengthy 'professional' debate i.e. no abusive language or threatening behaviour etc.). The customer services department for chiltern railways undertook an investigation and they believe the date to have been changed also. The date on the Carnet ticket and date of travel was the 19th and the claim by chiltern railways was that I had changed the date to a 19 from an 11. I expect to receive a summons. Can anyone offer any advice? It is my word against theirs and I have to reiterate here - I did not change the dates on the tickets after they had been entered prior to getting to the station platform.