Tv Licence Summons

laticsfan

Hi, this morning i received a Tv Licence Summons for the offence of "used a COLOUR television receiver without a licence at the above address"

firstly the address is not mine, i lived their for two weeks.
secondly there is no aerial at that address

i suffer from dyspraxia and got very confused when i answered my friends door(where i stayed for 2 weeks) to find a man asking me questions and randomly filling a form in, then he gave me some kind of warning, on the sumons letter it says he tested channels and the aerial was plugged in which i know cannot be true as the wire is cut off at the wall, it also says the tv was on when they called, they are correct but it was connected to a playstation 3 while i watched a dvd.

i feel like i was pressured into signing the form they had and now getting very worried, if anybody can give me some advice on what to do as im very fearful and court would be a massive step for me to go their and actually talk to people i dont know, thanks

Kurtis_Blue

Step 1. If you have issues then obviously don't talk to people you do not know on your own again, and never sign anything without a representative, but that's no help now.

Step 2. Sign out of this forum, do not read or take notice of any information from random strangers that have the time to read and type on here get some PROPER legal advice from a solicitor, you need it.

laticsfan

will do, going to get in contact with citizens advice on monday, cheers

macman

You don't need to have an external aerial to watch live TV.

Buzby

From what you describe, your mitigation is not enough to prevent a successful prosecution (this is a criminal offence). CAB will not represent you in court, so you will still need a solicitor or lodge a defence and turn up in court having denied he charge.

If you do nothing, you will be found guilty, and the Bailiffs will be calling.

laticsfan

would love to know where the bailiffs would turn up..... im currently staying with friends and have no possesions other than clothes

jackthenipper

There are ways & means of finding people.
CAB won't be able to do anything apart from give you advice, but you don't need advice as you have no way of proving that you weren't watching live tv, I'm afraid your guilty, as macman said you don't need an external Aries to watch tv.

If & when this goes further, & you say that you were on the ps3, but not watching live tv, you could be watching live tv via your ps3!.. You have already admitted that the tv was on.

I'm interested in what Buzby would lodge as a defence!?

Buzby

Depends on what is being claimed, but successful defences include challenging Crapita's evidence chain, validly disputing statements on accuracy (most common), submitting proof that the owned equipment was incapable of receiving broadcast signals (eg a VDU) and the most fun, the name and address on the charge sheet is wrong.

DUTR

Buzby wrote: »

Depends on what is being claimed, but successful defences include challenging Crapita's evidence chain, validly disputing statements on accuracy (most common), submitting proof that the owned equipment was incapable of receiving broadcast signals (eg a VDU) and the most fun, the name and address on the charge sheet is wrong.

Seems a lot of hassle, I dodged having a TV licence for years, but after a couple of close calls realised it was no fun really and just paid the £140 odd a year for a little more peace of mind, even though the programmes are rubbish, the only people that knock the door now are the JWs or bonified visitors. :cool:

Buzby

These were legitimate defences, some may have been trying it on but the bulk that were not single mothers who signed statements of admission (by coercion), were often thrown our by the judge who took issue with Crapita's slap-dash approach to evidence. Not turning up in court is often the second worse thing to do, as being there often negates a rubber-stamped guilty result.

BobQ

laticsfan wrote: »

Hi, this morning i received a Tv Licence Summons for the offence of "used a COLOUR television receiver without a licence at the above address"

firstly the address is not mine, i lived their for two weeks.
secondly there is no aerial at that address

i suffer from dyspraxia and got very confused when i answered my friends door(where i stayed for 2 weeks) to find a man asking me questions and randomly filling a form in, then he gave me some kind of warning, on the sumons letter it says he tested channels and the aerial was plugged in which i know cannot be true as the wire is cut off at the wall, it also says the tv was on when they called, they are correct but it was connected to a playstation 3 while i watched a dvd.


i feel like i was pressured into signing the form they had and now getting very worried, if anybody can give me some advice on what to do as im very fearful and court would be a massive step for me to go their and actually talk to people i dont know, thanks

Given your condition you need to get someone to present your case. If you have committed the offence then you may as well confess this and try to explain how this happened.

You were only there for two weeks so did you have a licence at your previous address that you forgot to transfer? If you were just staying as a guest did you have any reason to believe the owner/tenant had a licence or did not need one? Its not clear what your circumstances were at the time.

The offence is not to have a TV receiver or to use it to play DVDs or Playstations on. The offence is to use a receiver to recieve live TV pictures. But having an aeial in the house where the TV is used is probably reasonable grounds to suspect you have been using it illegally particularly if its in the same room. Did the investigator come in and inspect what you were doing?

Edit - One other point is that because the offence is to receive live TV, you cannot avoid doing this by removing or even cutting off the aerial. Without an aerial, the picture may be unwatchable but you can still be detected as having received a signal. The safest way to deal with this is to retune the TV, Freeview box etc to ensure they are not tuned into the broadcast channels and so are not even detected.