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

[Jesuswasacapricorn]

Awake and worried about potential repercussions of this. I'll try and explain it as simply as I can without giving info - all names have been changed to protect the innocent 😀

1. Joe Bloggs - address in the North - date of birth 01.01.2003
2. Joe Bloggs - address in the South - date of birth 01.01.2006

Son (Joe Bloggs 1) gets a court summons at his home address for non payment of a train fare by Reading Courts, travelling on GWR in January. He's never travelled on that train and was at uni in an exam at the time it was issued. The first covering page of the summons has his name and our address in the north.

On the actual court summons itself it has the name of Joe Bloggs 2, address in the south and date of birth as 01.01.2005 and also 01.01. 2006.

I am concerned about where they have got my address from and if it will affect a/ my son's credit rating and b/ his job prospects - he has just got a job today to work in finance.

I'm awake fretting that this will affect his ability to get a mortgage and they'll search him and see this against him. What the hell do we do to sort out this?

We've emailed the revenue person at the train company that's on the summons and son has called the revenue protection where he now has to prove it wasn't him - the guy on the phone called him dude - that's another rage in itself. He has the evidence of being in his final exam.

I'm absolutely fuming that they've broken GDPR by messing up all this information and caused stress when its nothing to do with him. And the original Joe Bloggs won't get his summons.

I don't know how clear I need to be.

My son has not travelled on the train, on that service, on that date. He was in an exam in a different part of the country.

He can't engage with the summons because it is not him who is being summonsed. If he does engage with it, that will be him a accepting that the service is valid and he is the summonsed person, even if he (the summonsed person) considers that he has a defence.

If you read what I said properly I said he should engage with challenging the incorrect service. That is discretely different and would be the correct thing to do.

I am absolutely not advising he should ignore it altogether and "waste the court's time".

I'm legally qualified ... are you?

Its not his summons thats why

There is a lot of misinformation on this thread

Someone's summons has simply been sent to the wrong address is all.

Listen, this happens quite often. I once saw a bloke summonsed, in the description from the ticket officer guy that he was black with an Afro, the defendant was Spindley and white. Go to the court, see the prosecutor who works for the train service show them the evidence and they’ll wave you goodbye.

He can't respond to the summons as it's not addressed to him. It's someone else with the same name but a different address and different date of birth.

He does need to challenge the summons and give anyone evidence that he wasn't there - they know who it is, the correct person is on the summons.

All he needs to do is get them to understand they've sent the letter to a name and address that is not the one on the summons. Just the same as if the letter said Florence Nightingale and the summons said Joe Bloggs.

Adding in evidence of where he was and whatnot is just confusing the issue - which is they've posted the summons to the wrong address.

Responding to the summons doesn’t mean attending court or offering a plea. A summons has been received at their address, albeit via GWR letter, and the court case will go ahead. As the OP doesn’t want to leave it in the hands of GWR or ignore it, the only other option is to respond to the summons which is as simple as a letter from her son explaining the errors and that he wasn’t on the train.
If he does nothing any fines incurred due to a lack of response could be attributed to the OPs address which from what information we have is a possibility, continue to ignore and that can cause bigger issues than the inconvenience of writing a letter in response to what has been received. Once the court is aware, (because they don’t know what they aren’t told), the magistrate should ask GWR or whoever is bringing the prosecution to check their records or alternatively they will withdraw the case there and then.

Exactly this. He just needs to let them know they haven't served the summons properly on the person named in it.

If the OP does nothing, there should be no consequences to her son as the summons is NOT for her son.

There will be consequences for the person who the summons is for. But if the person did not get the summons, then it seems unfair for them to have consequences if they did not get the summons.

I think you’re missing the point. If he has a piece of paper, he has to do something about it. If he doesn’t, they might be bailiffs arriving at his house or work still, police. More likely bailiffs.

Everyone appears to be missing the point, this is a CRIMINAL court, not a civil one. He will get a criminal record and he needs to deal with it, whether it's been sent incorrectly or not. There won't be a CCJ or bailiffs, it will be a criminal record.

This is equivalent for being arrested for a crime you didn't commit. You need to prove innocence, not ignore it. They messed up the summons, do you want them to mess up the conviction too?? Because make no mistake it will go on your sons record @Jesuswasacapricorn

Let him adult, but point out that he absolutely must make sure he doesn't end up with a judgement against him in error because depending on what he is doing in finance he might have to disclose that and if they run a DBS it would show on that.

We are going to get legal advice from our solicitors on Monday. I want it sorted.

I'm still fecking angry we are in this position because GWR spam everyone with the same name until someone responds on the off chance that its the fare dodger who will be long gone.

Who do you think the court thinks the summons is for?

So WIBU to then send the costs of the solicitors fees to GWR to pay? After all I am proving my son's innocence in a potential criminal conviction. A wrongly named and addressed court summons.

They need to stop spamming innocence people with these letters.

Check re solicitors costs with your solicitor.

your DS is innocent/not guilty and has a caste- iron alibi so your solicitor should submit all costs to the court as part of the process. Main thing is you and your DS should not be out of pocket.

It doesn't matter who I think it's for, it's been served to the Ops son, so he needs to deal with it, because, if I know anything about the criminal justice system, and I do, they won't be sorting it out themselves.

It's not clear from your opening post whether this came from the Court or from the train company.

If it was sent to you from the train company, are you totally sure it's an actual summons?

The only reason I say this is because I often have to deal with parking companies and some of their tactics are very threatening and I have received paperwork at times that looks very officious, but is just their attempt to scare you into paying up.

Who would the court be expecting?

If it has someone else's name on the actual summons, then who has it been served to?

And who would the court be expecting?

So in future, tick the box marked "keep my details private" or something similar, on the electoral roll. It minimises the chances of debt collection (or just any random person with curiosity) entering your name into a website such as 192.com and obtaining your age and address. It won't erase the past, that's there forever now, but when you move nobody (except those with the relevant powers to access the private electoral roll) will know where to, unless you have given them your address.

They’ve not broken GPDR, try not to comment about things you are not expert on and don’t understand. It’ll sort itself out, just like any cas of mistaken identity.

Mistakes happen all the time, I went to university with somebody who actually got an admissions offer meant for somebody else with the same name. He just took it and kept quiet.

I would send all correspondence recorded or similar so you have proof that the documents have been received.

The accuracy principle?

https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/data-protection-principles/a-guide-to-the-data-protection-principles/accuracy/

• You should take all reasonable steps to ensure the personal data you hold is not incorrect or misleading as to any matter of fact.
• You may need to keep the personal data updated, although this will depend on what you are using it for.
• If you discover that personal data is incorrect or misleading, you must take reasonable steps to correct or erase it as soon as possible.
• You must carefully consider any challenges to the accuracy of personal data.

Exactly, it doesn’t criminalise mistakes. Do you seriously think that all data that everybody holds on somebody else is accurate? Or this is the first mistake the train company has made?

The language “reasonable steps” which is very common in legal and regulatory frameworks is not a high bar to pass. It certainly doesn’t criminalise incompetence otherwise half the country would be in prison or fined :)