When my son went to university amongst the advice I
gave him was that on no condition should he open the door to a person who could
possibly have been from T.V. Licensing (aka Capita plc). This was purely precautionary because I
insisted that he and his flatmates bought a T.V. license or they would forego
my generosity in the provision of a free T.V. for their communal use. Such
advice was based on the sometimes aired iniquitous practices of said plc when
license “evaders” were giving evidence in court only to be contradicted by
dubious so called “inspectors” whose evidence to say the least was often unconvincing. So the
likelihood of the end of such procedures at magistrates` courts is warmly
welcomed. To have a criminal record for
non payment of a license fee to watch television was always a disgraceful use
of the state`s power.
About 180,000 such people are currently prosecuted annually. Many of these are the poorest individuals in
the country living hand to mouth and day to day. About
70 of those found guilty are jailed for non payment of the resultant fine
imposed. These T.V. license courts comprise about 10% of all cases coming
before Justices of the Peace. Their
re-location to the civil courts system will lead to a further reduction in the
number of courtrooms in daily operation and a consequent reduction in demand
for new lay magistrates and a further diminishing in sittings for most.
Having been a proponent for many years of this
proposed change…..try typing http://thejusticeofthepeace.blog.co.uk/TVlicense
…… it is for once a most welcome change
coming as it does from the Justice Ministry.
The BBC TV Licence goons cannot be trusted. I visit TV Licence Resistance and so many people have gone their reporting how the BBC goon lied so they ended up in court http://www.tvlicenceresistance.info/forum/index.php/board,4.0.html
ReplyDeleteLicense? Have we moved to the USA as well?
ReplyDeleteNote to blogger; switch off spell checker
DeleteAre fixed penalties available for these in England? If so is that 180k including the fixed penalties?
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that under the current system Capita pockets the costs awarded following each successful prosecution. It regards this estimated £14,000,000 p.a. as a legitimate income stream.
ReplyDeletehttp://watchkeeperslog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/some-recently-published-statistics.html
Moving the licensing system from criminal to civil jurisdiction does not tackle the fundamental problems - that watching television programme service unlawfully occurs in the privacy of one's house to which the BBC and its henchmen have no right of access, that the only "evidence" of an offence having been committed is the confession of the alleged perpetrator, that the commission-earning salesmen enforcing the law profit monetarily by doing so and that the whole system can easily be defeated by the alleged perpetrator exercising his/her right to silence. On the latter point, I note that you, yourself, recognise this by advising your son to maintain his silence.
http://watchkeeperslog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/it-only-works-because-you-let-it.html
The fact remains that a law which requires any person watching/recording television programmes when transmitted to have the State's permission to do so is either plain daft or sinister. One hopes it's the former, in which case "the law is a ass - a idiot", whether civil or criminal.
Your article begs the question: what should be done about these "dubious so-called inspectors whose evidence was ... often unconvincing"?
ReplyDeleteAt TV Licence Resistance we see (and try to help) the human casualties of this system - people being prosecuted unfairly, often maliciously and with total disregard to many basic legal principles such as equality of arms or informed consent to interview.
Whilst decriminalisation may improve matters simply by shaking things up, I too fear that the fundamental inequities are so entrenched into the TVL system, that it's possible we may even end up in a worse position.
If the evidence is s Dubious and unconvincing, why are people being convicted for the supposed offence? Surely if the evidence is not convincing or concrete then the court should find against TV Licensing. As soon as you all start enforcing law appropriately your court time will be free up as this company will need to actually obtain valid evidence in order to bring people before your bench.
ReplyDelete