Settle Out Of Court From London Underground Prosecutions Department

First of all, this would be a very long day for me as there is so much things happened in just one day. In fact, I do know that I shouldn't talk about it. Guess the reason I still writing this post was due to too "lonely" in UK while I was on the 50-50 feelings in deciding the date to go back to Malaysia. Anyways, which of the following would motivate you to work harder? Choose your top five and rank them in order or priority and explain about the job satisfaction. Bonus, more responsibility, working for a successful company, bigger salary, threat of redundancy, a better working environment, commission, hard working boss, promotion opportunities, praise, good colleagues, perks or fringe benefits is the first lesson that I learn from the English course morning class.

Frankly speaking, I do feel unhappy about some of the model when the tutor repeat the same thing that is being taught previously. When I point out that the subject is being repeated, he just say sorry and wouldn't repeat it next time but who would repay the $$ for this course? (我读书少，你不要骗我) In fact, it is quite hard to explain the module because it changes every 4 weeks and there is not much choices to choose. Somehow I was trying to think in a positive way when joining this course because I don't want to disappoint my relative good intention for helping me. During the morning break, I was having some good conversation with a Brazilian friend which is a lawyer. It seems that he get a lot of good offer from big company such as Facebook, Vmware, counsel job to work in the legal and law area but he refused as he like his current KPMG company.

Actually he do advice me that if I am interest to study law to become a lawyer, there will always be a way because my excuse was I don't want to study anymore as I am enough with the academic lifestyle. After the morning class end, I quickly take the tube to South Kensington station for settling my "fine" at London Underground Prosecutions Department (LUPD) but the staff was not around. Therefore I quickly take the train back to attend my next class. Well, the next class seems to be having a little bored because it is about business communication and the topic was about business meeting etiquette, relationship and communication in Italy. It seems that Italians prefer to do business with people they know and trust. One of the important lesson that shared by the tutor was "It is important to know who you know, instead of what you know" in the business world. In short, it means to have a good network or connection with people.

After the class end, I quickly take the train to South Kensington again to pay the fine of £75 as I had chosen to settle out of court. Actually before this I had searched a lot of information about "got caught using a child ticket" related information and it is quite ashamed to say it for now. Well, the solution that I found out for the penalty fares and prosecutions from Transport for London (Tfl)was shown as below.
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1) You’ve been caught
So you have been caught, either it was a mistake or you were deliberating doing it, it really makes no difference. Make sure that you check whatever you sign at the time, this will be used in evidence against you, so make sure that you agree with what TFL inspector, or if you did not know then you may say that you were under duress to sign it.

If the ticket inspector has taken down your details it will be all put in a computer, and I gather that the decision to prosecute is made by the prosecution managers. If you have given a real name and address you are likely to receive a letter, saying that you were caught at X time and X date, and do you have anything to say about the matter.

You should immediately reply, with a grovelling letter of apology, it will also be important to make sure that any correspondence with TFL is printed off or photocopied, and kept in a safe place or folder, you will need this if you need to go to court.

2) The Court Summons
Think that they have forgotten about it, haven’t heard about them in a couple of months? TFL are extremely busy prosecuting people, probably with the amount of people that don’t pay on the buses. As fare evasion is a summary offence a court summons can arrive any time (so I’m told) within 6 months of when the offence was committed. Any longer and I assume you can have the case chucked out of you as the time limit for bring forth proceedings has elapsed, or you could be unlucky enough to have the court summons arrive 4 days before the elapsed period.

2(a) Read 
Though you will probably be in shock and perhaps thinking that your legal career is over it is important to read all the documents that you have in front of you, check all the statements provided by inspectors, look to see if they are signed or not, an unsigned statement may not be valid, after all how do we know that someone else has not made this information up? Look also at the statements look for discrepancies, the TFL inspector may have surmised what you have said, or might not have written down what you said at all. Note this down for later.

2(b) Do I have to respond immediately?
My advice is no, do not respond immediately to the court summons as you will be trying to settle out of court. I did not fill out the back of the form or send anything off. If you have already put in your plea it doesn’t matter you can change it. If you have received a court summons ring up the TFL number provided on the summons and ask for whoever is in charge of your case and ask for their email, this will speed up communication time, as you will not have to put valuable letters within the remit of Royal Mail.

3) Drafting a response to the court summons
(A) Tone and Format
Assuming now that you want to settle out of court, have read through all the information on the court summons, have highlighted any discrepancies in the evidence against you, and checked that the statements have been signed so you can assure for their validity you can now start with your draft letter/email in the hope that you can settle this out of court. You will need to sound (a) apologetic, do not rant, keep it simple and precise, and (b) it needs to be written in a formal manner. Do not use the same adjectives over again, have an expansive vocabulary but do not get flowery. Whilst also being formal, apologetic all that jazz, you need to be persuasive, be persuasive in a suggestive way for example “It could be open to suggest that…” etc.

(B) What to include.
Hopefully if you have read all the above points you will know what to include.
You may want to set it out like this (a) Apology (b) Revenue and Policy Guidelines that support you case (C) The Pace argument (explained later) (D) if the statements are signed or not.

(C) The Pace Argument
The pace argument relates to the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. (You may wish to google this) now TFL inspectors are bound by this act and therefore must perform their duties in accordance with it. Depending on your circumstances you may not be even to use this argument, this must be considered very carefully, because if you use it and its not applicable to you then you will look like a dumbass. I suggest you do your own research on Pace.
Now what can you use PACE for. Basically PACE stipulates that any conversation or questions put to a suspect that are likely to produce an allged confession, must only be after you have been cautioned. A police caution in this circumstance being that which you may be familiar with on the bill "You do not have to say anything. But it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence."

So if you have been questioned and you have said anything that may be prejudical to your case you could suggest to TFL that it would be inadmissible in a court of law.
If it went to court, you can make an application under s.76 and s.78 of PACE 1984 to exclude such evidence being admitted.

4) The Waiting Game
So hopefully you will nervously await a reply from TFL as they decide your fate! This process can take up to a week. They will either (a) inform you that they are proceeding with the prosecution or (b) saying that they will drop it, if you pay prosecution costs and the fare evaded, an amount which could be between £100-£200. Once you have paid they will send you a confirmation that they have dropped the case and that you do not need to attend the court date.

5) What happens if they don’t drop the prosecution.
Now I never got this far, however I would try and keep communications open as possible with TFL, keep asking them to settle out of court. If not you can ask to meet with the prosecutor and suggest that they charge you with a caution, if not then you could ask the magistrate to impose an absolute discharge (which is not a criminal conviction) given the prosecution’s hard stance. You could also show how eager you were to co-operate with TFL, and make sure that you have a copy of all the correspondence between yourself and TFL.

6) Should I get representation?
Not if you can settle it out of court, solicitors will charge £100 for an interview as fare evasion does not give rise to legal aid! There may however be people who will represent you.
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Upon arrival at LUPD (2nd Floor, East Wing, 63-81 Pelham Street, London SW7 2NJ, prosecution-office@tube.tfl.gov.uk), I do have some conversation with the reception.
Anyways, the content of my letter from Mr Alan Mundy Prosecutions manager and gave the Formal Warning Aceptance Form as shown below.
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The facts of this incidents are now being considered and I must advice you that legal proceedings may be initiated against you regarding this matter in accordance with the London Underground prosecution policy.
If you have any comments to make regarding this incident please write them on the reverse side of this letter and complete the information panel below, returning the whole letter, within 10 days.
You do not have to reply to this letter but it may harm your defense if you do not mention something which you may later rely on in court. Anything that you provide in writing may be used in evidence.
Failure to respond to this letter may result in the matter being progressed by the London Underground Prosecutions department without further notification.

That you accept the offence as alleged and undertake not to travel on Transport for London services in the future without previously paying your fare for the whole of your journey.
That you agree to reimburse the cost of processing the case against you in the sum £75, payable within 14 days from the date of this letter.

Please note that although this warning is not a criminal conviction, London Underground will retain a copy and it could be taken into account in the decision to take enforcement actions against you in the future, should you be reported for a similar offence
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Somehow the warning for penalty of 51 weeks imprisonment or a fine of up to a maximum of £1000 do scares me out. Anyway, I trying to think in a better way such as having sushi at Wasabi restaurant and saw the Lamborghini sport car as shown below.
Furthermore, the HSBC currency exchange seems to be so expensive when it cost RM5.2275 for 1 GBP.

After that, I walked to the Science Museum to look for the 3D Printing exhibition as shown below.
Well, the 3D printing technology seems to be having a huge potential market in future but there is still lack of information such as how to produce their plastic if I want to do this kind of business. Honestly, I still don't know what is my future path is because I often distracted by my surroundings. Suddenly I do recall what my brother say that "Whatever decision that you make, please don't regret it and keep moving forward" in life. In addition, I do think back about my cousin sayings to think about the risk and consequences of it before doing something. On the other hand, it seems that the Philippine typhoon survivors was facing a hard time now. At last, I just feel quite tired because there seems to be so much happening in just a day. In fact, I might agree with what my brother said to me that "If the thing can be settle by $$, it wasn't a big problem" because before this, I had think it in a very negative way, but the fact is this case can be settle outside the court by paying around RM400. After all the incident that happened toward me, I think I had learn a very important lesson from it.
(Self Expenses note: Today £93.40)