my wife has tv licence court summons!!!

veryworriednow

Hi all, i have not posted on here before so im not sure im posting in the right place but here goes.

in november 2009 my wife had a knock at the door and it was a tv licence guy. she let him in and she filled in some paper work with him and signed it and she was read her rights. we dont dispute the fact that we had a tv without a licence, although as far as my wife was concerned we had one but had missed alot of payments.

in the early part of 2009, i made my wife go down the doctors as she had self harmed, constantly crying and always in a mood. the doctor diagnosed clinical depression and she was placed on medication to try and sort this out and she is still heavily reliant on this medication even today. i then tryed to take over the finances as she was unable to deal with them. i did not even think about tv licence at the time.

when the guy from tv licence left, he said "if you sort out a payment plan so you have a tv licence, then you dont need to worry about this. as long as you get a tv licence, you can forget i called". so we sorted it out in my name and i have been paying monthly since. i missed the first payment by mistake but payed double the next month and so i know im up to date.

now this morning! recieved a court summons through the door for my wife. date of information on the summons is 22/03/2010, the auto printed date on the bottom of the letter which is built into the ref No. is 25 march 2010. now we only got this today and the hearing date is 18 may 2010(10 days time).

our finances are also not good as my wife had to give up work because the job she was in was looking after people that could not look after themselves and she also struggled very much when there was a death in the care home. she is trying to set up a business with a friend now to try and sort things out, but its slow progress and we dont expect to see a return for a few months if not longer. i am working but everything i earn goes on rent, car finance, repaying overdraft and paying for our 2 children. we do get tax credit but only about £60 per week. my wage is about £350 per week. rent is £500 pm, car is £300 pm, overdraft to lloyds is repayed at £200pm and i have even defualted on that this month(i could afford it a few months ago before my wife left work), council tax is £80pm, car insurance is £60pm and there are a few other bills like gas and electric paid each month(elec is £96pm at the moment).

we are thinking of pleading guilty and going to the magistrates court and explaining the circumstances to them. is this wise or do we just plead guilty by post. my wife is in pieces and im genuinely worried about her now as this was the last thing she needed right now.

we really need any advice we can get at the moment

Thanks all

Rob

Silk

veryworriednow wrote: »

we are thinking of pleading guilty and going to the magistrates court and explaining the circumstances to them. is this wise or do we just plead guilty by post. my wife is in pieces and im genuinely worried about her now as this was the last thing she needed right now.

Rob

Hi Rob,
Sorry to read about this but I think you need to post it in a different section where more people who might be able to help will see it.
Try posting on this section .....
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=76

Good Luck

spike7451

Rob,
I got one of these last year as my circumstances was I was unemployed at the time.I had an up to date licence at the time as I had gotten it backdated to when the last one expired but before I could do this,while I was away on exercise with the TA,the inspector called at my home.
Before you go into the court you can pay the cost by cheque or PO to the licencing inspector (I only had to pay £32 costs) & all you will have to pay is what you owe in 'back tax'(because that's all the tv licence is in reality!) plus costs but,if you say you're up to date & can prove it,all you'll have to pay will be the costs & they will only defer payment for one month at the judges discresion.
Dont worry about it,the letter they send you is a scare tactic,nothing more.And check the facts on the sheet that the inspector got you to sign as often they contain 'errors'. (the inspectors are actually employed by a outside agency & do not have official powers)
You might like to have a shufty here:
http://tvlicenceresistance.info/forum/index.php
It's a bit of an eye opener!

veryworriednow

spike7451 wrote: »

Rob,
I got one of these last year as my circumstances was I was unemployed at the time.I had an up to date licence at the time as I had gotten it backdated to when the last one expired but before I could do this,while I was away on exercise with the TA,the inspector called at my home.
Before you go into the court you can pay the cost by cheque or PO to the licencing inspector (I only had to pay £32 costs) & all you will have to pay is what you owe in 'back tax'(because that's all the tv licence is in reality!) plus costs but,if you say you're up to date & can prove it,all you'll have to pay will be the costs & they will only defer payment for one month at the judges discresion.
Dont worry about it,the letter they send you is a scare tactic,nothing more.And check the facts on the sheet that the inspector got you to sign as often they contain 'errors'. (the inspectors are actually employed by a outside agency & do not have official powers)
You might like to have a shufty here:

It's a bit of an eye opener!

well this is it, im up to date at the moment but no one has told us to pay anything for old tv licence. just to sort out direct debit for new licence. no one has asked to pay anything for back dating.

davidlizard

As the offence is "watching telly as it is broadcast without a licence", have TVL got any proof that you were watching television during the period for which you were unlicenced?

Surely if TVL cannot prove you were watching television during this period, then they are unable to prove that you have broken any law? Probably depends what you told them, as much evidence they acquire is from "self incrimination".

(Ownership of a television does not require a licence - you can quite legally watch DVDs etc).

I know this is no benefit or consolation to the original poster, but this is a classic example of why under no circumstances you should let TVL/BBC "officers" into your house to demonstrate why you do not need a licence to "get them off your back". At the end of the day, they are employees of a private company. The correct approach being to shut the door without comment and leave them to apply for a warrant to gain entry.

spike7451

davidlizard wrote: »

As the offence is "watching telly as it is broadcast without a licence", have TVL got any proof that you were watching television during the period for which you were unlicenced?

Surely if TVL cannot prove you were watching television during this period, then they are unable to prove that you have broken any law? Probably depends what you told them, as much evidence they acquire is from "self incrimination".

(Ownership of a television does not require a licence - you can quite legally watch DVDs etc).

I know this is no benefit or consolation to the original poster, but this is a classic example of why under no circumstances you should let TVL/BBC "officers" into your house to demonstrate why you do not need a licence to "get them off your back". At the end of the day, they are employees of a private company. The correct approach being to shut the door without comment and leave them to apply for a warrant to gain entry.

And according to this thread here:
http://tvlicenceresistance.info/forum/index.php?topic=1965.0
Only 30 warrents were applied for in a 12 month period in the UK.
I believe I read on that forum the 'inspectors' get paid a commision for every licence they 'sell' while on a snooping sorte.

[Deleted User]

davidlizard wrote: »

(Ownership of a television does not require a licence - you can quite legally watch DVDs etc)./QUOTE]

I'm not sure this is correct. As far as I understand it, as long as you have a TV with a receiver,you will need a TVL, whether you watch it or not. And it's irrevelent if you don't watch BBC channels.

OP - sorry to hear about your circumstances, but don't worry about the summons. If you have a full upto date license now, you can explain that you were not aware of the previous missed payments due to mitigating circumstances. You may have to settle the missed payments by installments during this year, but you may also incur some court fees. Good luck

moonrakerz

spike7451 wrote: »

I believe I read on that forum the 'inspectors' get paid a commision for every licence they 'sell' while on a snooping sorte.

Correct - they do operate on "commission". The overwhelming number of Court convictions are obtained by the man from TVL getting the offender to sign a confession. This is often done by suggesting/implying that if the offender does this and buys a licence all will be forgiven, once a signature is obtained conviction is guaranteed !

I think the BBC is worth keeping, but it should be slimmed down and paid for out of general taxation. The Licence fee is outdated and almost unenforceable. TV Licensing are a bunch of cowboys who employ some pretty unsavoury tactics often getting very close to being unlawful.
BUT - at the moment it is all we have and I consider anyone watching without a licence to be stealing - from me and everyone else who has paid !

cajef

[quote=[Deleted User];32613901]
I'm not sure this is correct. As far as I understand it, as long as you have a TV with a receiver,you will need a TVL, whether you watch it or not. And it's irrevelent if you don't watch BBC channels.

[/QUOTE]

Davelizard is correct and your understanding is wrong, you can own as many televisions as you want but you only need a licence if you watch or record broadcasts as they are being transmitted live.

http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/check-if-you-need-one/

moonrakerz

[quote=[Deleted User];32613901]

davidlizard wrote: »

(Ownership of a television does not require a licence - you can quite legally watch DVDs etc)./QUOTE]

I'm not sure this is correct. As far as I understand it, as long as you have a TV with a receiver,you will need a TVL, whether you watch it or not.

As cajef says you DO NOT need a licence to own or indeed watch recorded TV programmes - however if you read much of the propaganda put out by TVL it certainly implies, or even deliberately misleads people to believe, that they do need a licence to own a TV.

I had a flood of threatening letter from TVL, all saying I didn't have a licence, "officers" were going to visit and interview me, etc, etc etc; not one of them even mentioned that if I didn't have or watch a TV then I didn't need a licence.

My MP eventually got rid of them for me !