Forgot to renew monthly pass

Morning Guys,

Had a bit of a nightmare this morning.

I always get a monthly rail pass to get to and from work, have done so for the past 6 months. My most recent pass expired on 10th March 2013 (yesterday).

This morning, I completely forgot about the fact that it had expired. I resultantly got on the train (departing station had no ticket check-point) having been completely unaware of this and showed my pass at my destination going through the barriers unaware that it had expired a day earlier.

I explained to the guard that this was a genuine error on my part and made copious attempts to pay the fare/renew the pass, but he was having none of it. I co-operated fully from then on, but he took my old ticket as “evidence” and said I’d be getting a letter through the post.

Nothing like this has EVER happened to me before. No fines or history of fare dodging. I can prove purchase of previous monthly tickets and have purchased a new one for this month from today.

Just looking for a bit of guidance going forward really. Needless to say, I’m a bit worried after reading some of the horror stories on here.

Cheers in advance guys.