irish rail fine

youyesyou

Basically,

I used my student travel card to purchase two student tickets recently.

I received a bill for 172euro 2months later on account of having done this:

2 Laws quoted

2005 Railway Act; offence to attempt to travel on railway without paying fare and intenting to avoid the fare.

2001 Criminal Justice Act; section 7; offence to obtain services by deception, refraining from doing an act with intent of making gain for myself and of causing loss to another.

I was told in the letter that I could appeal if I had a reasonable explanation;

I appealed as follows:

***

To whom it may concern,

I write having received a request for payment of 172euro owing to using the same student card to pay for two train tickets on April Xth. (ref: XXXX)

I write to appeal the imposition of this penalty owing to my having a reasonable explanation of which it is my intention to elaborate upon presently:

On the date in question I travelled with x colleagues (all students) from Dublin Heuston to Tralee. The weekend being Easter weekend train and transport services were quite busy, we arrived at the station in a less timely fashion than we had anticipated. After queueing at the kiosk to buy our train tickets it became clear that one of the group could not find their student travel card. With the departure of the train imminent I offered them the use of mine so as that they wouldn't have to miss the train in attempting to locate their own. They used my travel-card number to success and the ticket was purchased. Incidentally we did not in fact catch the train we had intended to board.

While my friend X proves currently uncontactable should you have the resources to, you will find a Sir / Madam X, attending X College, Dublin, originally from Co. X, as being in possession of a valid student travel card. They will corroborate the circumstances in which their ticket was purchased with those that I have hereinbefore outlined.

I would therefore request that the imposition of any penalty be annulled on account of my production of this objectively reasonable explanation.

Thanking you kindly & wishing you a nice day.

Yours sincerely;

****

Having heard nothing for two weeks I rang today to find out my appeal was just opened. & they dealt with me on the phone then.

I spoke to two people, the first said he'd get on to his supervisor and see what he could do.

the supervisor rang me back and is having none of it;

basically he says:

***

he has no way of verifying if that person had a travel card or not.

that it is a condition of my travel card that it's for my own use.

***

where do I stand,

as an aside, which i mentioned on the phone, I was under 18 on the date I purchased the tickets and when I signed for my student travel card.

I amn't exactly certain, I know it's a complicated area, but doesn't this mean that I can't be held to the terms of these contracts, as a general principle.

Of the two pieces of legislation they quoted, the first is obviously unapplicable, and the supervisor maintained the second was, but I would think it clear that I did not have the intention of making gain for myself AND causing loss to another. Even if the legislation said OR as opposed to 'and' I still maintain i did not intend to cause loss to another by letting someone entitled to a student fare purchase one.

Supervisor basically says he'll see me in court and I can explain this to a judge.

Obviously the last place I want to be is in court.

What to do?

Thanks in advance.