Fixed Penalty Notice for Littering

Azari

David_Aston wrote: »

"TV Licensing’s activities are carried out in accordance with specific policies and guidelines, which set out the criteria for prosecuting evaders. One of these criteria is that a person who is charged with a TV licensing offence must be an adult who resides at the address, or is the landlord or person responsible for licensing a television receiver at the premises. For example, a genuine visitor or babysitter at the premises will not be prosecuted."


This is from the current TV Licensing webpage.

They probably got such a roasting after that ridiculous prosecution that they made that rule and put it down in writing in case some other jobsworth decided to prosecute someone who was not actually responsible for the set.

The fact that the passage quoted specifically mentions a babysitter would seem to indicate so.

I wish the net had been established at the time because I'd have loved to see people's reactions.

Unfortunately, you can't interrogate printed media but I know I had a number of questions such as: If the householder had left a set on in a room the babysitter was not occupying and had not entered, would she still have been responsible?

Cornucopia

The offence as it stands is one of strict liability. That is, someone caught committing the offence can be prosecuted with a reasonable expectation of a conviction and without consideration of intent. However, most TVL convictions arise from confessions, not direct evidence of evasion.

BBC Policy now states that they won't prosecute various people including baby-sitters.

That aside, their policy is to interview the first adult who answers the door, if that person confesses, or if TVL witness evasion, they will prosecute that person. They also allow husbands and wives to exchange liability if they wish.

olias

Just thought I'd take this oppoirtunity to remind all that the BBCs income for the last financial year was £5.1 BILLION. Just saying like..................

Now, I wonder if there's anything decent on to watch tonight..............:undecided

Olias