Didn't pay train fee

Emilysweetmm

I was issued a train fee this year, 100 or appeal with a due date of the 31st of February. This was because I was travelling with a student ticket and without evidence of being a student on me and with neither card or cash to pay. I did have a British passport on me, which I gave him as ID, and my old address at the University Halls fully intending to pay the fine. This was a very... dramatic time in my life and I honestly forgot about it. I was on the record as a missing person for a week around the time this happened.
I just found the ticket they gave me inside a book and suddenly remembered. No one has contacted me about this but I also didn't go back to the address I gave since getting the ticket. I absolutely have the evidence I was a student at time of travelling but, obviously, I should have to pay a 1000 fine by now, shouldn't I? I genuinely don't have 1000.
What should I do? They should have enough evidence to find me with a passport, name and old address shouldn't they? Should I contact them and explain? What would happen if I didn't? Do you think the proof of being a missing person around this time would help me prove it was just something I forgot?
Thank you, for any help at all.

Hollister11

You didn't abide by the bylaws so pay up. Your mistake, your penalty.

Kristopherus

Was the fine €100 or €1000? Its hard to know from your post.

armaghlad

Don't pay

Shadow1983

31st February?

BarryL67

I Would appeal it maybe on the grounds you were a student?

Phoebas

If they have your passport details and an old address then they probably could find you, but I doubt they'd be bothered trying to track you down.

So you could probably get away with it if you're willing to be dishonest - although I don't know why this is a 'legal discussion'; you've accepted that you didn't have the proper ID at the time and, even if you did have grounds to appeal, you didn't appeal on time.
Seems very straightforward what you should do.

endacl

Shadow1983 wrote: »

31st February?

Of the year twenty hundred and eleventy six.

.G.

If its not due until 31st of February I wouldn't worry about it. You've loads of time to pay. Tell them you'll pay as soon as we reach that magical date.

Emilysweetmm

Shadow1983 wrote: »

31st February?

Uni can't teach you common sense
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (meant 29th, obvs, sorry)

Emilysweetmm

Kristopherus wrote: »

Was the fine €100 or €1000? Its hard to know from your post.

it would have been 100 euro had I either paid or appealed on time. The fine increases to 1000 euro if you don't do anything by the due date. Sorry, should have been clearer.

WoollyRedHat

Emilysweetmm wrote: »

Uni can't teach you common sense
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (meant 29th, obvs, sorry)

Tell them you weren't aware it was a leap year and thought you had a few years to pay.

The Masculinist

They won't bother their A tracking you down. Chill

Losty Dublin

The Masculinist wrote: »

They won't bother their A tracking you down. Chill

They actually do bother to chase up people. Giving up false details to a ticket inspector is an offence as well as fare evasion. Dealing with false addresses given by fare evaders are common enough for CIE and Luas so it follows that they have a few tricks they can call upon to chase them up. OP may be well advised to contact them, own up and take their medicine if she is honest and wants to do the right thing before it comes back to bite you.

The Masculinist

Losty Dublin wrote: »

They actually do bother to chase up people. Giving up false details to a ticket inspector is an offence as well as fare evasion. Dealing with false addresses given by fare evaders are common enough for CIE and Luas so it follows that they have a few tricks they can call upon to chase them up. OP may be well advised to contact them, own up and take their medicine if she is honest and wants to do the right thing before it comes back to bite you.

OP has a British passport so (s)he is possibly used to the British system, where, yes, you would be chased up-and they would throw the book at you if caught.

However, this is Ireland. Do you really think Irish Rail are going to spend hundreds, or even thousands or euro trying to track her down and, if they do find her, spending even more bringing her to court over a max €1,000 fine?

Bottom line, it is extremely unlikely.

OP-you should make amends and pay the fine and associated penalties. Just bear in mind that you will be in the 5% of people bothering to do this, and thus, don't be surprised if they throw the book at you as you would be a "soft touch" who is more likely to pay up.

Losty Dublin

The Masculinist wrote: »

OP has a British passport so (s)he is possibly used to the British system, where, yes, you would be chased up-and they would throw the book at you if caught.

However, this is Ireland. Do you really think Irish Rail are going to spend hundreds, or even thousands or euro trying to track her down and, if they do find her, spending even more bringing her to court over a max €1,000 fine?

Bottom line, it is extremely unlikely. .

They've other ways to check things out

The Masculinist

Losty Dublin wrote: »

They've other ways to check things out

Cool :)

foxatron

Losty Dublin wrote:

They actually do bother to chase up people. Giving up false details to a ticket inspector is an offence as well as fare evasion. Dealing with false addresses given by fare evaders are common enough for CIE and Luas so it follows that they have a few tricks they can call upon to chase them up. OP may be well advised to contact them, own up and take their medicine if she is honest and wants to do the right thing before it comes back to bite you.

What are these tricks you talk of ?

Emilysweetmm

Thanks for all the help, lads, despite having probably posted this on the wrong forum.
April Numerous Fashion, address of the University Halls is in Ireland, yep. And btw, Losty Dublin, to be clear, I didn't give the ticket inspector false details. They should be able to get my current address easily from the Uni (which they know from the address I gave them at the time) if they contacted them but, like, that would prove I went to Uni, so idk.
Anyway, again, thanks for the advice everyone. I am going to contact them about it, but I think I'm going to wait a bit until I actually have 1000 euro to give them.

XxMCRxBabyxX

I might not hurt to contact them sooner. Edison your situation and see if they could either let you pay the lesser fine or pay the larger fine off in stages. They helped me out before.

TheDoc

I got a fine before travelling from Broombridge to Malahide. Broombridge(don't know if it does now) is in Cabra and had no ticket machines and was just a platform. I worked there so would get the train to Connolly and then connect to Broombridge.

Being the law abiding sap I am I used to get of the train, walk out of Connelly, get a ticket to Malahide, then back in. One day just wanted home and as I got off the Malahide train was there waiting so just walked on. First and only time I have come across a ticket inspector and got a fine.

Wrote a letter into them not even outlining an excuse, just my journey and what happened, and they responded that they appreciated my correspondence, appreciate the logistic issues with Broombridge and were looking into ticketing options at the site, and quashed my fine.

I think the State run organisations pretty much bank on people not being arsed getting in touch. Its why the appeals process' are still by written letter as opposed to e-mail. I've been clamped twice by Dublin Corp in city centre and both times went through the appeals process and received a full refund.

Just write in as a first point of call, explain the situation. With their correspondance you'll know what the story is.

vg88

TheDoc wrote: »

I got a fine before travelling from Broombridge to Malahide. Broombridge(don't know if it does now) is in Cabra and had no ticket machines and was just a platform. I worked there so would get the train to Connolly and then connect to Broombridge.

Being the law abiding sap I am I used to get of the train, walk out of Connelly, get a ticket to Malahide, then back in. One day just wanted home and as I got off the Malahide train was there waiting so just walked on. First and only time I have come across a ticket inspector and got a fine.

Wrote a letter into them not even outlining an excuse, just my journey and what happened, and they responded that they appreciated my correspondence, appreciate the logistic issues with Broombridge and were looking into ticketing options at the site, and quashed my fine.

I think the State run organisations pretty much bank on people not being arsed getting in touch. Its why the appeals process' are still by written letter as opposed to e-mail. I've been clamped twice by Dublin Corp in city centre and both times went through the appeals process and received a full refund.

Just write in as a first point of call, explain the situation. With their correspondance you'll know what the story is.

Had a similar situation at sutton station before after 9pm. All the machines were locked up and there was no one at the counter. One of the few times I ever say ticket inspectors asked for the ticket. I said I had no chance to buy a ticket, they called the station aswell. Thankfully one of them wasn't a plank and let me buy a ticket off him.

Sometimes being honest about the situation is the best.

Spanish Eyes

Sorry but it's the being a "missing person for a week" that I'm intrigued about.

Forget the fine.