TV Tax enforcement question

darbooka

A neighbour who recently legally immigrated from abroad received a letter from TV Licensing warning that enforcement "officers" were slated to come her way soon. The letter stated "If my officers suspect that an offence has taken place, you may be cautioned and interviewed in complaiance with the Poice and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. This interview could then be used for the purposes of prosecution."

Notwithstanding the legal authority of TV Licensing to bring prosecutions of what the court will recognise as a criminal offense, is it in fact true and accurate that their commercially-employed-and-non-civil service-enforcement-officers can actually issue a genuine legal 'caution' and force an 'interview' literally as per PACE? Wouldn't it be necesssary for a police officer to issue any such caution and especially conduct an interview under PACE, and thus impossible for a lone TV Licensing cold-calling enforcement officer to do this?

According to TV Licensing, "TV Licensing is a trading name used by entities contracted by the Licensing Authority (the BBC) to administer the collection of television licence fees and enforcement of the television licensing system. The majority of the administration of TV Licensing is contracted to Capita Business Services Ltd, with the administration of cash easy payment schemes contracted to Revenue Management Services Ltd, and marketing and public relations activities contracted to the AMV Consortium." The status of a TV License enforcement officer is very different from that of a Police officer, and despite the important role TV Licensing enforcement officers purport to be playing, is it legitimate for them to present themselves so similar to Police officers by stating the reference to PACE and are they at all qualified to invoke PACE provisions if the person they want to "caution" or "interview" refuses to talk with them? Although there is a legal obligation to pay the TV License Fee, it is in fact NOT a legal obligation to speak with any TV License Fee enforcement officer or submit to an interview with him/her.

Can they really force someone they suspect to accept a "caution" or submit to an "interview" in accordance with PACE?

RayWolfe

No problem if they buy a licence, assuming they have a telly.

CIS

They have powers to interview under caution if don't have a licence and therefore have committed a criminal offence - remember that they cant enter a property without a warrant other than by invitation.

Hoddie_2

I'd just like to point out that the Licence fee isn't just for the BBC.

Bossyboots

It is not just police officers who are authorised to issue read the caution and conduct a PACE interview.

You cannot however have a solicitor paid for by the legal aid scheme in attendance if a police officer is not present.

darbooka

Hoddie wrote:

I'd just like to point out that the Licence fee isn't just for the BBC.

Really? The BBC is exclusively in charge of collecting the fee from the public, and it allocates this task to commercial service providors. Apparently it's too busy spending the money, to expend any effort or time collecting it. Anyway, what else is the Licence fee for, other than the BBC and for the BBC to invest in collecting more of it?

peter999

darbooka wrote:

A neighbour who recently legally immigrated from abroad received a letter from TV Licensing warning that enforcement "officers" were slated to come her way soon. The letter stated "If my officers suspect that an offence has taken place, you may be cautioned and interviewed in complaiance with the Poice and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. This interview could then be used for the purposes of prosecution."

...Can they really force someone they suspect to accept a "caution" or submit to an "interview" in accordance with PACE?

Moneymaking scare tactics.
Just shut the door in their face.

If some jumped up twit turned up at the doorstep trying it on, I'd put a bucket of manure over them, by accident of course.

Most "TV Licence Officers" (employed by private contractor) do not have a clue, do not have any power & just follow a rota to check TV Licences.
They will do nothing else at the doorstep & will send any discrepancies back to office for checking.
.

darbooka

CIS wrote:

They have powers to interview under caution if don't have a licence and therefore have committed a criminal offence - remember that they cant enter a property without a warrant other than by invitation.

Interesting. But if you're new at the property and they don't have a name of anyone living there, they can never get a warrant unless they have a name of a resident; right? And if you don't talk with them, how do they conduct an interview? And if you refuse to sign anything, how can they use anything gleaned from their visit as evidence gleaned from an interview under caution?
If they do show up at your doorstep couldn't you refuse to speak with them whenever they are unaccompanied by a police officer (at least so you can be entitled to legal aid), and otherwise politely refuse to give them the time of day?
Especially if it's a woman home alone in an empty street and a male enforcement officer, it seems that it would be unreasonable to compel her to open the door.

darbooka

In any event, the enforcement officers are not after retroactive accruals, right? So anything you didn't pay until an enforcement officer has showed up is not an issue, right? So essentially, the way the system works, you can just wait till an enforcement officer shows up and pay then. They probably cannot even backdate a license anyway, right?

peter999

darbooka wrote:

Interesting. But if you're new at the property and they don't have a name of anyone living there...

These are normal tactics of TV Licensing.

As soon as there is no TV License at a property where there previously was one, they will start to send out warning letters to "The Occupier".

peter999

darbooka

Many people abroad find it very difficult to understand how, while you can puchase a big brand new tv for 90-ish quid, you're supposed to pay over 135 quid in license fee each and every year; ie, pay the amount of a tv-and-a-half every single year. But even for those who want to comply, some of those enforcement letters are quite authoritarian and intimidating. If you don't pay your council tax, you're arguably hitting the budget of emergency services and public services, etc; but if you don't pay the license fee your breaking of the law impedes...... the vital producdtion of pub-based dramas, brica-brack auction guides, home buying abroad shows, and basically by nature and logic lots of productions that many people do not have an interest in. And getting caught is not just a basis for a penalty but gets you a criminal record?