Some horrible teenager has given my address to get out of paying for a train ticket

[Al991]

A have got a letter from the train company telling me that my son, whom I’ve never heard of, tried to dodge a ticket and now I need to pay for it. I want to ring them and tell them what’s happened but partner says we shouldn’t engage and should just write return to sender not at this address on the letter. Says if we appeal the fine that’s sort of like saying it’s our fine.

What would be the least ridiculous way to deal with this stupid situation 🙄

You need to call them and sort it.

As far as they're concerned, you are guilty and this is going to court and will likely affect your credit rating - and may even lead to bailiffs knocking on your door.

As intelligent people - as much as you are OFFENDED and OUTRAGED and INNOCENT - in simple terms you've been notified of a miscarriage of justice, and as responsible tax-paying citizens, you have a duty to notify the authorities of this miscarriage of justice.

Just call them.

The smugness of being INNOCENT and OFFENDED will be outweighed by your court summons, which will be the next step. And if you ignore a court summons, you have to be morons not to know how the justice system works.

Just call them.

Ignorance is not a defence.

Sometimes the check is thorough, sometimes it is not. It might involve simply Googling the address to confirm that it exists. Alternatively it might involve checking the electoral roll.

If they have your name and address it's already gone too far. Get in touch with them ASAP and explain the situation.

Happened to me once.

I had about twenty police officers racked up banging on my front door at 3 am one morning.

There were two riot vans and a squad car parked right next to my house.

I was livid and mortified at the same time in case any neighbours saw it

Don't engage with any link / email address or phone number as may be a scam. If really worried go to you local station with the letter and go from there.

The very same thing happened to my friend. It was actually a friend of her Granddaughter who gave the false address. My friend took the letter to the girls parents to sort out.

I would call them and follow up with a letter. They may know you, if you know who they are dob them in. CF.

Riot vans for a train fine? Are you sure? 😂

OP, are you saying that the rail company have wrote to you - using your real name saying that your son has a fine and you’re responsible for it? If that’s the case I’m going to say scam too. I had a few fines as a teen and they always came addressed to me, not my mum.

They don't have her name. They've got an address, and a name which may be the name of the culprit or entirely fictional. They'll be familiar with this sort of thing, it should be straightforward to sort out via email.

I got caught trying to bunk the train as a teenager and I reluctantly gave my real name and address.
A week later I got a letter addressed with my surname spelt wrong. A "d" instead of a "p". I returned it as not known at this address. Never heard of her 😄

Speak to IRCAS (Independent Revenue Collection and Support).

The same happened to my husband years ago (and he worked for a railway company). IRCAS quickly sorted it out.

It’s likely someone that lives on your street to know your postcode because I’d have no clue about anyone else’s postcode but my own.

Eh? You know you can look up any postcode?

I know loads. Places I've worked, friends & families addresses, holiday homes we've stayed in, places i lived as a student. I could reel off ten.

If ever caught fare dodging it would be easy to simply give a generic, extremely common name like Laura Baker or Matt Woods, and an address you knew already like a different house on a road a friend lived on.

100% phone them and say you have no son so it’s malicious. I would worry the letter returned wasn’t acted on and they’d just keep going with a prosecution/debt collection

This is weird. You are not liable for your son’s crimes so even if you had a son who bunked a train the company cannot come to you for the payment. They have to persue him!

My DD had this. She like many of her generation did a complete deed poll name change on her 18th birthday. Well, last year a teen gave her old name and old address when caught fare dodging on the train to London. It was a £180 fine, that was redirected from our old house to our new one. DD was at Uni on the day in question and she had proof she was in attendence in class in Scotland when this other person was on a train only 18 mins from London.

What we did was we put in an action fraud report for identity theft. Because it is, and this means that the train operator must pursue the fine via the police. This gives you a police report #.

We then wrote a letter to the train company laying out that my DD hasn’t used this name for over 2yrs nor have we lived at that address for over 2yrs. Furthermore, it could not have been her giving her old name and address as here she was in a lecture in Scotland when the person being fined was just London. As it is impossible to be in two places at once, someone stole her identity. We put in the letter that we had filed a report on Action fraud and here is the police report # if they’d like to pursue this further.

It is good to report to action fraud too because identity theives may later try and open bank accounts, take out credit cards and so on with the stolen name and address. It sets up a paper trail.

We heard nothing more and the fine was dropped.

It’s addressed to ‘parent of’

In order to enforce payment of a debt, the creditor must first obtain a county court judgment. They can't simply instruct a so-called debt collector without having a CCJ.

it has the boys name on it but not my name

Why did you open it then?

As a pp had asked, if the letter was addressed to ‘Parent of X’, and you don’t have a child called X, why did you open it? You must have known it wasn’t for you.

Do the details on the letter match those for a genuine company such as Great Western Railway or Greater Anglia?

If they do, I would be inclined to write to them, personally, sending the letter 'signed for'.

I would enclose the letter they have sent to you and say in your own letter that you don't know the person referred to in their correspondence and that you are unable to help them with their enquiries on this matter.

It is absolutely NOT illegal to open a letter which comes addressed to someone else at your address. That is a myth.

"Postal Services Act 2000

A person commits an offence if, intending to act to a person's detriment and without reasonable excuse, they open a postal packet which they know or reasonably suspects has been incorrectly delivered to them."

a reasonable excuse is to open a letter in order to ascertain whether or not fraud is being committed by using your address. Fraudulent use of your address can, as has been said, lead to bailiffs turning up - which is a lot harder to sort out than opening the letter and correcting the misinformation.

I kept receiving things for the previous home owner's daughter (I thought). They said "addressee only" so I put them back in the post with "Not known at this address". They kept coming and I wrote different things, basically telling them I'd been the sole occupant for X years, then said that the previous owner had a daughter with the appropriate first name, but I didn't know her surname, gave the location that the mother moved to, but also that I was aware she had since moved again, provided the address of the step-father/husband, etc etc. Still they kept coming. In the end I opened one to see who it was from and it was a debt collection agency threatening bailiffs. I then gave all the info I had in one response, and have heard nothing since.

I discovered after moving in, that the mother was dodgy as hell, had stolen funds from a local organisation but got away with it because her father was held in such high esteem. Clearly the apple didn't fall far from the tree as the daughter had (apparently/possibly) used a different surname but her previous address, obviously being able to reel them off after living here for many years, and a veterinary practice was none the wiser. I have since discovered that she works at a nearby pre-school. What a shame she doesn't value her job enough to not risk losing it by gaining a criminal record!

Based on the ongoing stress I had living in fear of bailiffs I'd say make contact asap and clarify the situation, but then again, for a train ticket I doubt it'd be worth them pursuing. Still, I wouldn't want the worry.

Lol I used to doge fares all the time. It was easy on the old London overground. If I got caught I gave them an old address and the name of the landlady who owned the house. I was skint, that's why I bunked fares, and she was a twat

Wow.