Tv licence summons,i want to plead not guily

missile

I have only once seen an enforcement officer. Two of them knocked on my door many years ago.
"Blah de blah"
"but I have a license" says I
"not according to our records you dont"
I showed them the license and they stomped off, no appology.
If they knock again, I would not even bother showing them the license, I would shut the door and if he had his foot in it = even better.

ckerrd

I used to receive letters on an almost monthly basis. Initially I phoned them up and said I had a licence and they said they knew that and had no idea why the letters were being sent to me.
After I while I just started chucking them in the bin.
Two of the enforcement officers turned up and were most disappointed when I showed them a valid licence. I left them on the doorstep while I went and got it.

Even after that I got letters so I wrote and told them if I got any more letters I would pursuing them for harrassment.

Letters stopped.

Anyone from Crapita ever turns up they will be told in no uncertain terms where to go.

ariarnia

Admittedly in a student town, but we got tvl people calling about 3 times a year (on and off for about 5 years) telling us we didn't have a license and threatening letters about once a month.

We got told by the man at the door to call the number on the letter and the woman on the phone said there was nothing she could do to stop the letters and to ignore them.

No apology, no attempts to fix the system.

Last visit before we moved, the guy at the door recognised me finally and looked a little embarrassed, but still wanted to see the license, write down the number.

viktory

So has the OP bought a licence yet or not? Surely we would all agree that one is now needed.

inconfidence

so im the original poster, the low down on what happened as follows;

So having read and re-read and re-read again the record of my interview with
the TVL investigator, and consulted CAB, two solictors, community legal advice and countless online resources, I highlighted 3 major points that I felt favoured my case.

Firstly that I DIDNT admit to watching live tv programmes (because I wasnt)

Secondly, that several key admissions weren't highlighted on the record (notably that the TV was turned on and that the TV was plugged into an aerial.

And thirdly, the technicality that the day I was accused of watching TV contradicted the information on the record.

Now the fact that I was innocent should have been enough, but the signed (by me) record of interview was a solid (if in my opinion faulty) piece of evidence on their part.

So I did buy a licence very soon after receiving the summons, as I do now have a freeview box, but I knew that that wouldn't be enough for the case to be dropped, and I wasn't expecting it to have any influence on painting a better picture of me in court.

I then submitted a letter to the court in person stating that i wished the case to be adjurned as I didnt feel I had enough time to prepare my case. Was told by a court employee that this was likely to be granted, so I'd given myself some more time. Still I had to prepare as best I could in case it wouldn't be adjourned, and prepared a lengthy (4 A4 pages) mitigating circumstances statement. I sent a summarised version (still lenghty!!) via email to TVL and in doing so outlined my issues with the summons. After much searching on the TVL website, I found a telephone number and actually spoke to a rep for the first time, and was given another number that dealt with summons. Relayed what I had written in the email and was told I just had to wait till the day of the case to see if it would be adjurned.

The day arrived, I turned up 40 minutes before the hearing and on the advice of one solicitor, approached the representatives from TVL who were to present my case in the waiting area to discuss. And you know what, they were very very polite and informed me that TVL had requested an adjurnment themselves based on the fact that I had since bought a licence and that if it could be verified then the case would be dropped!!!

So against all the advice and evidence to the contrary, I buy a licence almost 6 MONTHS after the date of the offence and they just let me off!?!? (indeed only this morning i received a letter from TVL saying just that, and that if my payments are kept up they will apply to withdraw the case)

I can only assume that my (many hours) investigative work in finding holes in their evidence, and my adamant claims to be innocent, have made them do a bit of u-turn on this one. I'm half tempted to take them to court for unnecessary stress and time wasting...

But all is how it should be now, I just hope i dont miss a payment or two!? mind you I was sort of looking forward to fighting my corner in court...

VICTORY!!