My daughter has an annual season ticket , one day she left her ticket at home in error
On arriving at destination she reported at the barrier that she had either lost her ticket or left at home
She was asked to pay for a ticket and a penalty fare , she declined the penalty fare
the next day she presented herself at the station with her season ticket and the station refunded the fare that she paid the previous day
She was then sent a letter regarding penalty fare which she was invited to appeal , she sent all the required documentation first class. Her appeal was returned back to her denying that they had received it on time ( which they would have) the reason they gave for the delay is that the one first class post stamps was not sufficient ,one ( of the 2 applied which was OTT in any event ) had fallen off in transit and they returned her appeal to her opened ( evidencing receipt) claiming that it had not been received on time. If it was not received on time it was only due to the fact that there was a procedural delay between the appeals people and Royal Mail whilst they argued who was going to pay for the missing second stamp. She argued that was unfair , they rejected out of hand and now she has a magistrates summons . It concerns us that it is not in the appeals peoples ( funded by railways ) best interests to receive appeals on time as they would much prefer to collect the penalty and that if they can find an excuse to frustrate the appeal they will. Will the magistrates court listen to this sympathetically or not ?