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

Get him to do that straight away, send with proof of idm by recorded/signed for, keep a copy. Then forget it. These things happen, I've had odd letters and emails with mistaken identity here and there, they are easily dealt with and come to nothing.

I doubt calling someone 'Duke' means much in the scheme of things, especially if your son and the person to whom he was speaking are young.

What has an exam to do with anything?

If you are concerned with this matter and subsequent phone calls, and your son is doing exams, it sounds as though he is a long way off having a mortgage.

Stop worrying! It really is not a big deal, honestly.

Write to the court informing them there has been a data breach as JB1 now knows about JB2's summons.

Dp has twice been chased for a debt that wasn't his but someone else with the same name a DOB. He was able to sort it all out over the phone, his credit rating unaffected and we have since got a mortgage without any problems. I'm sure it will be fine op.

It's not dissimilar to the parallel situation I experienced of being accused of hitting a car 180 miles from home and the battle I faced to clear my name. It's the first time it's ever happened to me but by the end of it, what an education in how poor insurance companies are at managing faulty accusations.

this situation is not dissimilar in that the rail company just wants to pin the charge to someone and they push and push even if the person is 100% innocent, so it's very good that you're shoring up your defences on this OP because these big companies don't care about the repercussions, they're happy to say guilty until proven innocent which is disgraceful but the reality,

@Jesuswasacapricorn - this happened to us.
Initially we had letters from the train company with the fine - had the fare dodger’s name (probably fake) and our full address.
Then threat of courts summons.
We kept sending them back to sender, writing on the envelope that this person does not live at this address and to stop sending their correspondence here.

Finally we got a hand delivered letter from the bailiffs. The letter had a contact email and so I sent them a cease and desist email. They asked for proof of ID and I sent utility bills with DH and my names on.
That was the last I heard on the matter, although not sure how that proves that fare dodger did not live with us.

Apart from the good advice given, you really need your son to engage in the process. You are doing him no favours by not empowering him to write the letters, contact the court, know what is happening in this whole process.

it sounds like you're doing all the heavy lifting when he is the involved adult not a minor, he's in higher education and presumably can fight his own corner. This is a good education for him, so don't over-protect him from this reality.

ETA cross posted with @Clarinet1 but my point still stands

He has a degree and a job in finance but doesn't understand what a CCJ could do to his credit rating? Yep definitely time to adult for him I think.

Sounds fine to me; However, if your son is of an age and intelligence to have completed a degree, why is he not resolving this issue himself?

You obovisly need to let the powers that be know that they have got the wrong person but worrying about job prospects and future mortgagability is a total overreaction on your part. Talk about catastrophising! They've made a clerical error and your son can easily prove it wasn't him. The birth dates don't even match.

This is good. I had similar (though not with gwr, and in my case totally different name on the envelope to people living at my house). I emailed the company and informed them that a serious looking letter had arrived at our house, addressed to someone
a)we do not know
b) who doesn’t live here
c) has not lived here the whole 6 years we’ve lived here.

I explained I didn’t open the letter as it’s not addressed to us, but didn’t want to just leave it due to the seriousness ( the outside was labels who it was from).

from what I understand of your situation you can perhaps explain that the letter was opened, as it initially looked like it was addressed to your son (same name) but upon opening it, you realised it was not (different location and d.o.b mentioned in the letter).

I think if you can find a contact to write a email to (even if it’s a general one and not the correct dept - they can pass on internally as needed) you will feel some relief that you have been able to explain in writing and will have something to refer back to down the line.

good luck!

edited for a multitude of typos

Admin errors like this are tiresome and disconcerting.

In my town there are two roads with the same name. My elderly parents lived in one of them. At the same number of the other road, there lived a chap apparently "known to the police". Dad discovered this when official police / court documents arrived there, which were duly returned to the bodies in question with a polite email follow up from myself. He had opened them in error as when you've lived in a property for 40 years and only get mail for yourself, and you're elderly, you tend not to scrutinise your mail that much.

Still didn't stop the police turning up mob handed one day, knocking on the door with the quiet genteel street where my parents lived full of cars and vans, much to the intrigue of the neighbours. They were reasonably apologetic for the "postcode error" but it was an irritating situation, and obviously a waste of police time etc.

Sounds like your son will be fine OP, though I completely understand your concerns. Hope it all gets sorted with the minimal amount of stress.

sort the court stuff out - plenty of advice above
report GWR to the ICO (the GDPR issue, not the "dude" call handler - make a separate complaint about that)

In the very unlikely event that this gets on his record, he can show this mixed up letter as proof that it’s an error. But it won’t.

You would be notified before a CCJ is applied and a court summons comes before a CCJ. Don’t pay for a credit check, use check my file and cancel after 30 days free. I doubt it’ll show anything.
As for his job, there’s not really anything to tell them at this point.

Call the court and explain. The people at the court will be a lot more sensible than the GWR person you spoke to who it sounds like didn't understand the situation. Your son cannot attend the summons and explain anything he is not the person summoned you can't just walk into someone else's court date.

All the above posts have explained it very well, so please stop fretting, there is no damage to his credit rating yet. Just write back, with evidence.

You are right to be concerned. There’s been a bit in the press lately about the single justice procedure and its flaws. A lot of train companies have been over using it. Is this what is being used against your DS /[his southern namesake]?

If you have home insurance with legal cover, it might be worth asking for some advice. Alternatively citizens advice are very good. But I personally would address this with the courts rather than ignoring it.
Also, just to say, if your DS is completely innocent (which he sounds), eventually common sense will come through, and this will go away. It’s just going to take a bit of effort.

So send it back saying not at this address.

A secondary aspect of this, perhaps contact the Information Commissioner about the GDPR breach.

As for the GWR response, after the 100 lies and excuses they receive for those who avoid payment (which should be called theft as that what it is), not easy to tell the one genuine mistake or explanation.

It seems strange that there is a covering letter from GWR if it is a summons.
Usually you get a summons, plea form and an evidence bundle. Ultimately if he has received a summons he needs to respond to it. Chasing GWR seems futile based on your experience. The hearing is booked if he’s been summoned and will go ahead. Explain everything to the court via letter, he doesn’t need to attend. GWR has effectively handed it over to the courts and so my advice is to respond to the summons, ignoring it could result in a worse situation.