Now, year later I am receiving this fine of £100+ for a criminal
offence! Luckily, I have a bad habit to forget throwing the tickets
away, and they get accumulated on a shelve in my house. I managed to
find the travel card I bought on that day as well as all travel cards
I bought in the weeks before and after the incident. I also have
records on my bank statements that I paid to TFL and when (it shows
that I bought the travel card 5 minutes after talking to the
inspector). I have consulted my solicitor, and he advised I should
plead not guilty in court, as I did not try to evade the payment, was
cooperative with the inspector and offered to pay the penalty on the
spot (oh, by the way, the inspector never asked me to pay one).

I, however, would like to ask what do you think my chances are? I have
no witnesses. I've never been in a situation like this. I feel a
victim,
and I am really frustrated with the conduct of the inspectors. I was
so naive! Those are right who say "never trust a man in a uniform".


You are going to have a hard time arguing this in court.


People of course come up with the lengthiest excuses when they get
caught - if they put a tiny proportion of that effort into buying a ticket
before travelling maybe they wouldn't land up in such a big mess.

I understand your situation and you probably are genuine, but consider this
for a moment. As suggested above, it would be surprising if a determined
fare dodger were to say "its a fair cop guv - I have been deliberately
defrauding TfL for a long time, thank you for catching me". It would be
rather more likely that he or she will give some sort of reason, perhaps
like the one you gave, to make it seem that he or he had simply failed to
pay a fare that day, rather than travelling free on a regular basis. Exactly
how, objectively, do you differentiate between a persistent fare dodger and
someone such as yourself in those circumstances?