I know it's not my thread but I went through the same thing and didn't utilise the help of the forum. I resorted to a lawyer thinking it would help. Trust me it won't change anything however if you are completely set on getting one, DO NOT GET [edited - HB] SOLICITORS, they are completely useless. 

I'm in a similar situation, did you call them yet? If you did, what did they say? Please keep me updated, i'm worried about what's going to happen.

I made a really dumb mistake of following the crowd and just because my friends did it, I've never done anything remotely bad before. I didn't realise that you get a criminal record from fare evasion. I just started university so i'm really worried about the criminal record.