Son caught without renewed railcard

[TFW221]

Hi all, we had a letter a couple of weeks ago but son has been at Uni and only just opened it as he is at home this weekend.

Notice of intended prosecution. He was caught in July with no up to date railcard - it had expired 2 weeks earlier and hadn't realised. He bought another one there and then in front of the inspector and was told it would all be passed on to the appropriate people.

So we sent an email today apologising for the late response and attaching a picture of his railcard. We just sent one quickly as today was the date they needed to hear back from him.

I am thinking we should send a follow up one as the letter asks for any mitigating circumstances. He has ADHD and though he tries hard to be organised - he is forgetful/ loses things and he was in the middle of getting himself sorted for Uni and this just slipped through the net. He is furious with himself for being so stupid.

Any advice of whether he should send a follow up email would be appreciated, and how to word things. I haven't been in this situation before so not sure how to go about it.

Thank you for reading

It’s a criminal conviction it would go to magistrates.

I am new here but if I can work out how I will send you my appeal letter if you like

Sorry for late reply but yes that email is just right.The original one he drafted.

Apologies for my previous comment, I have no idea where I got the idea your son was only 16!

Thanks everyone for your posts and POVs.

Email sent, we added a few bits, making sure they had proof of his old railcard and the new one, and that he had bought his ticket. And sending his apologies, that he had learned a valuable lesson and asking if he could pay a fine, as this was recommended on RailUK forums.

So now he awaits the next step!

Yes please @Rosebud987 that would be a great help 🤗

But it's really obvious on the card what the expiry date is, it's there in big letters. People do need to take responsibility for themselves - it would take 5 seconds to open the app and check the expiry date.

But you don't need to show your card if you buy your tickets via Trainline - which I usually do. Truthfully, I don't look at the app from one month to the next. I do realise it's my responsibility, I'm just saying I can it would be easy to miss your card expiring.

My dc had an on the spot fine for not having his. I can't remember how much think was £100 but Lees if paid immediately

When I lived in the Netherlands if you were caught without a valid ticket you had to pay a fine of four times the fare price on the spot. Seems much more sensible.

This is what I cant understand - no fine at all just had to give his details and renew the card. I thought he did it in front of the guard but he actually did it later that evening.

The guard told him not to worry (🤔) it would be passed up the line to his manager and just to renew it.

3 months later - here we are.