Help - Son issued with court summons for non payment of train fare - wrong person and wrong address

Worst case scenario - it goes to court, he attends with his has a cast iron alibi and the judge finds in his favour.

Well that's a wasted day, plus expenses of travel. And there's no guarantee you will get them back if the court (magistrates initially) feels that the person could have avoided court by engaging with the plaintiff earlier.

Yes, good plan. Then they both know the situation and also know that the other party has been informed.

I would send both letters Signed For and then in a few days print off the confirmation of receipt from the Royal Mail website.

Assume the best, but prepare for the worst. So keep copies of everything in case it is needed at a later date, but I expect it won't be.

As the Court Summons doesn't have your address on it and refers to a person with a different date of birth, it sounds like a massive cock-up by the train company.

Why would you be doing this? He's the person who hasn't committed the offence and can prove he hasn't. He also seems capable and proactive. Your only part in this seems to be that your home address is tied to it. It's tiresome and I hope he is able to resolve it quickly.

Whoever issued the summons... which would be the court... an intention to prosecute? you contact GWR....

[email protected]

So i assume you never got the letter asking your son for a statement of the facts? GWR have to ask this first.

Dependent on this, you get a chance to settle out of court... or in your sons case, explain they've got the wrong person..

My DD made a mistake with her rail card, she'd never used before, she thought the 16-25 meant the duration... it was a bank issued freebie.... , got an interview under caution... i was fucking incensed and wrote to GWR on her behalf, explaining how she was treated, how the "inspector" & his trainee eyed her up and down... they quietly dropped the case but no apology.

These rail companies are cowboys, their powers to prosecute and caution are similar to the Police, based on law made in the Victorian times....

Good plan, generally it won’t be over until the court date though. GWR aren’t a prosecuting authority so even if they ask whoever has laid the information to the court that an error has been made, the court still need to withdraw the case. Once you’ve submitted everything I’d phone the court the afternoon the day after the hearing to get the results. It’s public record so they should tell you.

My Daughter got a letter in her name at our address informing her that she was £6k in arrears with her mortgage. She had never had a mortgage and was a uni student at the time. Had to clear that one up.

The police called me asking for my daughter as a material witness in a SA case- name given of victim and everything. The person they wanted wax still at school. The school gave them my number. My daughter was 22 at the time.

The lack of attention to detail these days is ridiculous and caused innocent people so much grief.

I think some of these answers are muddling up other experiences

There are times when you, actually you, are sent a summons or a fine incorrectly

There are times, like in the OP when a letter is sent to a different person, at the wrong addresss but you share the same name as the person. That is not you that is being summonsed. Its the other person. You dont have to 'prove' anything because that summons is not you.

@Jesuswasacapricorn it’s very annoying but you need to let your son handle this, otherwise you are going to be stuck in this horrible anxiety. It would annoy/worry me too, but your son isn’t the offender and can prove it, to his new employer as well (he can stick to ‘mistaken identity - luckily I can prove I was in an exam at the time’. Clearly the offender has just made up some details to avoid being found - completely unfair your son has been dragged into it - and up to your son if he wants to push the ‘do better with people’s data’ side of things going forward. Hope he manages to get it sorted quickly.

My sister in law had this ages ago

Some debt addressed to her name and address but it wasn't her debt

It said she had ran up the debt while living at an address she'd never lived at (she'd never stepped foot in the area)

She just wrote a letter,followed up with a phone call and heard nothing more

It seems someone with the same name as her,living in the same city had ran it up and they couldn't trace her so had written to everyone with the same name for some reason

Surely they need to prove it was you.

The onus should not be on you to prove it wasn't you?

A few years ago I received a court summons from Durham Council for non payment of rent.
I live 300 miles away and when speaking to someone from Durham Council said they wrote to anyone with that name as the person had moved out of the area.
It took a while to prove it wasn't me.
So I understand your worry.

What has an exam to do with anything?

Try reading the OP's message? It's what her son was doing at the time of the alleged offence.

A credit check isn't going to show up a criminal conviction. Fare evasion is a criminal offence not a debt. It would show up on a DBS not a credit report. Just send off a plea of not guilty with a statement and evidence as to why he is not guilty.

This happened to my DH. He got a fine and a court date for smoking on a train. Obviously we knew it wasn't him and we were actually on holiday at the time so easy to prove. He just contacted them and they fixed the mistake.
No repurcussions.

Just make sure everything you send is via signed for/registered post too. Royal Mail are pretty shite and a lot of items are ‘lost’ in the post.

This, they have simply sent the summons to the wrong address is all.

They havent sent it to your son because its not your son.

Is the letter genuine or a scam?

can you check on your house insurance to see if you have included legal cover?
I'd think that a solicitor would be able to sort this out more quickly, and give you peace of mind

Sympathy, OP. If Ontrak were involved in this process somewhere they are a bunch of total bastards who will try all sorts of tricks. Good luck getting it sorted

Husband had something similar happen when we were living abroad. He had a speeding ticket sent from the south of the country. He could prove he had been in a work thing in the north of the country that he had needed to sign into at the time. Also the ticket stated a car and the registration given was for his motorcycle. He told them the facts and was asked for a copy of his registration document. They apologised and that was it. It turned out one of the numbers on the photo wasn't clear so they guessed. Husband's bike had a 3 and the number was actually an 8....

The summons itself has not been issued to your son.
Although the name is the same on the summons the date of birth and address is not. All that has happened is that someone has clicked on the incorrect address from a drop down box when addressing a covering letter.
If your son was to ignore it, it wouldn't be him that they would chase it would be the intended recipient of the summons, the person whose name, address and date of birth is contained within the summons itself.
In this instance I would advise your son to contact the court and railway company out of courtesy to let them know that they have sent the summons to the wrong address.
Your son won't have to prove anything as the summons has not been issued to him.
The only gdpr breach that has happened, has happened against the intended recipient of the summons. I would contact them out of courtesy too. They may wish to make a complaint.
In this instance your sons response is the correct one.