Intimidating Letters from Television Licensing

[Mince]

This guy has been collecting the letters he is sent from Television Licensing and displaying them on his website, along with some funny comments. It's interesting reading:

http://www.bbctvlicence.com/2006%20letters.htm

http://www.bbctvlicence.com/

[The Peepmaster]

Why doesn't someone prosecute them for harassment?

[Mince]

You can send them a letter telling them not to harass you, and that stops the letters. You can also withdraw from their employees the implied consent to approach your door, and that stops the visits. It then becomes difficult for television licensing to gain any evidence that you are watching television without a licence, and so they cannot apply for a search warrant either. It's not illegal to ignore them completely. It's also not illegal to own a television without a licence if you only watch DVDs or play games. The television detector vans have never been used to prosecute anyone. (Television licensing rely on intimidation and on people thinking they have to confess to "enforcement officers".) And the workings and calibrations of the hand-held detectors have never been disclosed so they cannot be used as evidence in a court anyway.

[The Peepmaster]

You can send them a letter telling them not to harass you, and that stops the letters. You can also withdraw from their employees the implied consent to approach your door, and that stops the visits. It then becomes difficult for television licensing to gain any evidence that you are watching television without a licence, and so they cannot apply for a search warrant either. It's not illegal to ignore them completely. It's also not illegal to own a television without a licence if you only watch DVDs or play games. The television detector vans have never been used to prosecute anyone. (Television licensing rely on intimidation and on people thinking they have to confess to "enforcement officers".) And the workings and calibrations of the hand-held detectors have never been disclosed so they cannot be used as evidence in a court anyway.

There ought to be a website about this.

[Mince]

There is one:

http://www.tvlicensing.biz/


There is also a forum:

http://www.tvlicensing.biz/phpBB2/

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

Why don't you just pay the bloomin' thing? Wimbledon and Match Of The Day don't come cheap, you know.

[Mince]

Why don't you just pay the bloomin' thing? Wimbledon and Match Of The Day don't come cheap, you know.

They do when you don't buy a television licence.

Besides, it's less fun that way.

[The Peepmaster]

I was reading the bit about Johnathan Miller. He used to write about his campaign in the Sunday Times a few years ago. It all seems to have gone quiet after 2003...

I do pay my licence, Tarks, but I feel uncomfortable with the BBC's assumption of guilt if you haven't got a telly. Imagine if you stopped having a tv but they continued to threaten you and intimidate you.

[Mince]

They have been known to send letters even when you have a licence. Their salesmen (sorry, "Enforcement Officers") do not undergo criminal checks and yet they expect you to let them into your home. (You don't have to, of course.) Because most of their convictions come from confessions and because their salesmen are paid bonuses for convictions, they tend to prey on the single parents and the elderly, and tend to use underhand tactics, intimidation, and sometimes even criminal behaviour to get their bonuses.

[Mince]

[Vulture]

Why don't you just pay the bloomin' thing? Wimbledon and Match Of The Day don't come cheap, you know.

But if you don't watch tv, why should you be intimidated into paying a licence?

I don't watch sport, soaps, quiz games, discussions or 'reality' tv. What's left is/are repeats that I watched the first time round - probably in the sixties - and, having seen them umpteen times, find the humour/novelty has worn thin.

I have loads of videos (it's amazing how cheap they are in charity shops; everyone is giving them away because they've moved over to DVDs!) that I watch when I'm in the mood and when I've run out of books.

I don't feel I should be browbeaten into paying for a licence when I am not watching what the tv companies are broadcasting. So there! 

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

Do you have a TV aerial, Vulture? If so, is it plugged in?

[The Peepmaster]

Do you have a TV aerial, Vulture? If so, is it plugged in?

That's for her to know, and you to find out, Tarquin. Don't let power go to your head.

[Vulture]

Do you have a TV aerial, Vulture? If so, is it plugged in?

No, and No.


(Are you moonlighting?)

[peter]

Do you have a TV aerial, Vulture? If so, is it plugged in?

These are rather serious questions do you work for the licensing office at the BBC TT111