NEARLY 130 people each day are prosecuted for failing to pay their TV licence fee with most of them the poorest people in the UK, an investigation has revealed.
In the year to June 2022, more than 47,500 people were prosecuted and more than 44,000 were convicted for failing to pay for a £159 TV Licence, according to a TalkTV investigation.
A total of 70% are women, some are in their 80s and 90s, and all of them have been prosecuted under the controversial Single Justice Procedure.
Many are still found guilty and fined up to £1000 despite having crippling medical conditions such as dementia and cancer.
TalkTV has obtained legal papers revealing how seriously ill people were still prosecuted despite writing statements to the courts to defend themselves.
One said: “I’m currently seriously ill with ‘very severe left ventricular systolic dysfunction’ and have been referred to the transplant team… I’m struggling emotionally with what my future might look like or if I will actually have a future… My husband lost his job and his income has dropped about £600 a month."
Another said: “I am the main carer for my wife and children who all have mental health issues. I am being treated for cancer myself so I have a lot to deal with at the moment…”
Tens of thousands of cases are also heard behind closed doors in secret courts, making it the most common crime in the country outside motoring offences.
In response to the investigation, the Ministry of Justice said it was carrying out a review of TV Licensing prosecutions.
If you watch or record broadcasted TV programmes, you must have a TV licence either through purchase or given free to those receiving pension credit and 75 years or older.
The licence fee pays for TV, radio and online programmes and services including iPlayer, Radio 1, CBeebies and the World Service.
It also funds Welsh language TV channel S4C and local TV channels.
Lord MacDonald is a former Director of Prosecutions who said there is a conflict of interest in the BBC launching its own legal action.
He said: “The interest of the BBC in this matter, of course, is ensuring that people pay their licence fee and that's a corporate interest which shouldn't necessarily be wrapped up with a prosecutorial interest.
“I think all criminal prosecutions should be brought by the independent prosecutor - The Crown Prosecution Service.”
ITV’s hit drama Mr Bates Vs The Post Office has re-highlighted the shocking treatment of over 700 postmasters who were wrongly convicted of theft and fraud in a series of private prosecutions.
The legal charity Appeal warned MPs about what it saw as similar risks facing TV Licensing in 2020, telling the Justice Select Committee: “We may see the same level of miscarriages of justice as took place in the Post Office prosecutions.”
In December, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said criminal prosecutions for not paying the TV licence fee was morally indefensible.
In a statement, a TV Licensing spokesperson said: “TV Licensing’s primary aim is to help people stay licensed and avoid prosecution - which is always a last resort.”
Joe Ventre of the Taxpayers Alliance told TalkTV: “What we would like to see at the Taxpayers’ Alliance is a complete reform of the system that jettisons the licence fee altogether.
“So in essence, what we’d like to see is a really slimmed down BBC... funded by general taxation. Whether you support it or not, the licence fee model is quickly running out of steam.”
