Thank you BazzaS. I had also questioned this and whether my reasons are conflicting. I have removed the fact that I was not aware of T&Cs as I think TFL would not accept that as a reasonable reason given it is a common knowledge that photocard is only to be used by the designated person.
Please see updated draft. Any comments, please let me know. Happy to make any amendments any of you deem fit. Do I need to grovel and apologise more?
Dear Sir/Madam,
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to respond.
Firstly, I would like to sincerely apologise for the incident that has led to this offence. I am extremely ashamed at my act and would like to offer my deepest apology to TFL and its staff.
I fully acknowledge my mistake. I understand that TFL can only provide their services when everyone pays their fair share and that discounted cards are a privilege which should never be misused.
While nothing can justify my action, I have been going through a difficult phase in my personal life since last year where my father suffered from complete paralyses and my 14 months old twins have been facing multiple health issues since their birth. This has all been very stressful for me and has left me in a very disturbed state of mind which led to my poor judgement where I ended up making this mistake which I truly and deeply regret.
I have always been a law abiding citizen and have no previous offences with TFL or any other authority. I have always paid my travel fares. I am attaching a copy of my credit card statement from 2019 which shows series of TFL payments evidencing the same. I can assure you that I will continue to pay my travel costs going forward.
I fully appreciate the seriousness of this offence and I am extremely worried that having a criminal offence on my record will have a detrimental impact on my career especially in the industry I operate in and will need to be disclosed at my work which can result in me loosing my job. This thought keeps me and my wife awake all night as it will be devastating for our very young family who solely depend on me as the primary bread winner.
I would like to make a humble appeal to TFL to allow me to settle this matter out of court and avoid going to prosecution. I would be happy to pay any unpaid fares plus any charges and/or administrative costs to TFL arising from this incident immediately.
Once again, I am truly remorseful and repent for my action and cannot apologise enough. I implore you for providing me a second chance and assure that this would never happen again.