IRCAS - forfeit right to appeal

[Warrior of Light]

Hello everyone,

 

I have been fined by TFL (needles to say it was incorrect fine) but I missed the deadline to appeal due to a mix of business responsibilities and personal health issue.

 

Can I still object this fine? I have enough evidence for my appeal and I am positive I will win, but legally do I have the right appeal when I have missed the deadline?

 

Many thanks

[RPI]

Nope, once the 21 days has passed then you can't appeal, and if it hasn't been paid then TfL will soon cancel it and issue a summons for prosecution.

[Warrior of Light]

Thanks. And can I object summons?

[RPI]

Only way you can "Object" a summons is to plead not guilty and attend court, TfL are renowned for not offering out of court settlements so if I were you I would pay the Penalty Fare whilst you still can, if the 21 days has passed then the PF will have risen to £80. Can you outline the details behind the PF? We may then have some idea of what offence TfL will summons you for if it goes that far.

[Conniff]

If you have evidence that shows they are wrong, then go to court.

[Warrior of Light]

Thanks. I'm not expecting out of court settlement at all, especially for £80.00 . I have just won't another summon (on professional basis for £28k with evidence of the incompetence of authority). So the reason for asking is I have a strong case of their incompetence and wrong doing with my Oyster Card. But I have no experience of: 1)dealing with a case when the appeal deadline has passed (obviously my fault due to personal circumstances) 2) dealing with IRCAS... I'm just a professional who has no legal background but who can read the small prints and who provide good evidence whenever available. I have just needed some yes or not advise. The rest will be sorted. Many thanks to all again

[Old-CodJA]

You say 'needless to say it was incorrect'

 

Why is that 'needless'? As Conniff says, if you are convinced that you have evidence that proves the Penalty Notice was wrongly issued, then you should await the summons and plead 'not guilty', however, you do need to be absolutely certain that you can prove that you were not guilty of any offence for this to succeed.

 

What actually happened for you to be issued with the Notice? The detail is important

[Warrior of Light]

I said needless to say as there have been a lot of wrong going on my Oyster card for some time. I have been fined because I was unable to go out of underground due of lack of funds (£0.50 short ) in my Oyster Card. It happened because the TFL system didn't record two entries in last 24 hours. At the time of fine I was aware of one of them but I was not aware of the other one. I explained politely to the inspector but he refused to move 5 metres away to the next ticket machine and to check the history of my travelling as confirmation of my case. 20 minutes later when I was in my office I have been shocked to find that my on-line Oyster Card shows TFL owes me already £45. This money have been sitting there for few months. On top of this in past 48 hours there have been inappropriate total charges of £10. Most of wrong records happened at the entry/start point. Something I have verbally advised about the local TFL staff on few occasions.

Saying all above I have received in past 2 months two automatic notifications of wrong charges from TFL which have been automatically refunded on my next entry to underground.

So my question is, if they can do such automatic notifications of incorrect charge which have been followed by automatic refunds, then why they didn't apply the same procedure/algorithm to the other £55 they owe me for some time but they put me in situation of being victim instead and on top of this they fine me. I didn't know that I'm in debit until I checked my on-line account.

 

I'm not sure whether to wait for the summons to be issued and to go to court to prove my case or to write to IRCAS now, since I missed the deadline for appeal. This is a technical issue I'm not aware of. I don't care about the summons at all. I'm absolutely fine with facing the judge. I wanted your opinion/advise on the shortest route on this occasion and what are the options as I'm not aware whether I have legal right after the appeal deadline passed.

 

Thank you to everyone

Edited February 26, 2013 by Warrior of Light

[RPI]

So basically your Oyster had insuficient funds for the journey you had made? If that is the case then then it is your responsibility to ensure you have suficient credit before you travel therefore you have been correctly issued a Penalty Fare, if my assumption of the course of events is wrong then correct me.