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Hi Anon @ 21.55. I did! I'd started off trying to get it kicked out altogether as an abuse of process. DJ stated that it didn't matter who the prosecutor was if a trial could take place(?); that an attempt to "resolve" matters without coming to court was to be encouraged (even though in my view it amounts to blackmail) and that if the information names a non-existent byelaw it doesn't matter as the correct byelaw was clarified in court and all parties knew the nature of the conduct alleged and that it was a criminal offence to travel without a ticket.

When it came to costs, the DJ said they hadn't behaved so as to amount to an unnecessary act or ommission, giving some tripe about the importance to the railway of investigating cases of non-payment. Prosecutor stated that the very act of travelling on a train without a ticket always amounts to a breach even if the ticket machine didn't work and basically tried to say "he's guilty anyway, so he's lucky we're offering no evidence".

I also don't think it helped that the ticket in question was for £11.40 and the DJ I guess wondered why we'd incur so much costs in fighting it. Either way I got the impression he was very much against us. But he couldn't stop us getting costs from central funds like it or not.