I don’t really think I can say what I think of the TV Licencing people at the moment. I’ve just moved into my new flat. I got my TV Licence transferred over the day before I moved in. And now, three weeks later, they are sending me threatening letters. I knew people that had been harrassed by TV Licencing but it doesn’t really hit you how much a bunch of complete &^*!$%@ they are until they threaten you. Anyway, I’ve got the evidence that I am, and always have been, in possesion of a valid TV Licence and the emails of the hassels that it took to transfer it over so if they do go nuts and report me to the Procurator Fiscal (and I hope I can convince them otherwise – but from what I hear that is very difficult) I can just turn up with all the documentation and say “Here is the evidence. I do have, and always have had, a valid TV Licence.”
In fact, I’m posting this from my parents house – I don’t have broadband yet, and I only just got a phone line put in today. The reason I am here is so that I can access my email and print out the relevant emails. So, not only have TV Licencing caused me stress (my stress reaction is to panic for 5 minutes then over-eat), but I’ve had to complete a 100 mile round trip to get the evidence in case they decide to send the “Enforcement Officers” round to search my flat! And, according to the letter I received today, they now have the authority to do that.
NOTE: This was rescued from the Google Cache. The original date was Tuesday, 26th September, 2006.
Tags: 
tv licencing threats harrassment procurator fiscal tv licence enforcement officer
Original comments:
The world is full of stupid &^*!$%@ like these. I had a similar incident some while ago when I decided TV was so crap we could do without it. So I did not renew the licence and told the licencing authority the reasons why. Despite this, they hounded me for months.
You should allow them to do their worst then sue them for emotional distress and the recovery of the costs involved in proving them don’t have a case. Bring a small claims court action against them!
I’ve already sent them a letter telling them of my anxiety of receiving their threatening letter and asking for compensation for gathering the evidence quickly in case they break down my door looking for my TV. I also reminded them that, unless things have changed since I was at school, that I was taught that in this country one was innocent until proven guilty.
Hopefully that will be the end of the matter, but having spoken to other people about TV Licensing, it seems unlikely. As a result, I am expecting that by the time a judge gets to see this I’ll have a folder as thick as a set of Harry Potter books of threats and evidence proving the threat to be unfounded.
I had a similar experience in the halls at Uni. I didn’t have a TV, but every week or so I’d have a letter from them saying I owed them money, and every 2 weeks or so I’d have a letter saying that they’d called round for an inspection to make sure I didn’t have a TV, though I was at lectures. It was the janitor who did all this, apparently, and I doubt he’d have spotted a TV card in a computer if I had one. It annoyed me until I emailed them and told them to sod off, which they did. I’ve never had to prove that I did have a licence though.
I had a problem with TV Licensing recently, after I bought a new TV but used a slightly different address to have it sent to than on my TV licence (which was wrong, as the website wouldn’t accept the correct address). See http://mikedimmick.blogspot.com/2006/08/tv-licensing-has-serious-issues.html for the details.
I didn’t post the end result; eventually one of my emails got through, and I now have a letter from them accepting the new address on the TV licence.
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