Post by Teddy Bear on Mar 20, 2012 18:44:21 GMT
Here's a few facts to consider.
So any sensible person who wants to avoid paying TVL themselves, should steal goods worth £200, sell it for £145, and give that to TVL. At least if they're caught they will only face an £80 pound fine. That's the way the law stands at the moment.
- The law as it stands allows TV Licence inspectors to take you to court if they discover you watching your TV without a licence - even if you agree to pay on the spot.
- More than 3,000 people a week are being hauled before the courts for not having a TV licence. The licence costs £145 pa. Last year a staggering 165,000 people were brought before the bench, and 140-odd thousand were given a criminal record for not having their fee.
- And yet you can steal goods worth £200, or cause £500 worth of criminal damage and be handed a fixed penalty notice by the police for the sum of £80. For this you don't receive a criminal record that remains as a stain on your character.
So any sensible person who wants to avoid paying TVL themselves, should steal goods worth £200, sell it for £145, and give that to TVL. At least if they're caught they will only face an £80 pound fine. That's the way the law stands at the moment.
TV licence evasion does not merit a criminal record - it's time for a change in the law
By Jack Doyle
A good shorthand measure of whether any aspect of public policy stands up to scrutiny is the alien from Mars test.
What would the little green men think of something or other were they to land on earth tomorrow (and, despite their overwhelming technological superiority, decide to simply examine us rather than yoke us all into servitude or strip our planet of all its resources).
Today we reveal an element of criminal justice policy which would, I suspect, have the Martians dismissing us all as a civilisation hardly worthy of the description and jumping straight back on to their spaceships.
That is the television Licence Fee, the £145 and change which we are all required to cough up every year to go on owning a television set.
The money goes straight into the coffers of that broadcasting behemoth, the BBC, irrespective of whether we watch it or even, in fact, if our sole interaction with it is to clench our jaw and grind our teeth every morning over what is served up by the Today programme.
But this is an argument not about the justness of the Licence Fee itself - and there are plenty of good arguments around that - but about the regime for collecting it, and the punishments given to non-payers.
The law as it stands allows TV Licence inspectors to take you to court if they discover you watching your TV without a licence - even if you agree to pay on the spot.
Last year a staggering 165,000 people were brought before the bench, and 140-odd thousand were given a criminal record for not having their fee.
It means Licence Fee evasion is the most prosecuted of all 'crimes' in England and Wales, with all the costs in court time that uses up.
The people passing sentence in these cases, the lay magistracy, have been calling for TV licence evasion to be decriminalised for two decades.
Heaven knows why no-one has heeded their call. A criminal record, even for something like TV Licence evasion, is a serious mark against your name, and shouldn't be given out for what amounts to a very minor infringement of our laws. How does it compare, as a crime, to, say, shoplifting, do we think? Or vandalism, or public drunkenness and thuggery?
These, surely, are a much graver scourge of our society than failing to pay for the BBC.
More than 3,000 people a week are being hauled before the courts for not having a TV licence.
And yet you can steal goods worth £200, or cause £500 worth of criminal damage and be handed a fixed penalty notice by the police for the sum of £80.
There were 75,000 of these handed out last year.
So for smashing up a bus shelter, or painting a wall or stealing from a business you walk away with your name intact and a small fine.
But the army of TV licence officials will hunt you down, knock on your door and haul you to court if you don't have a TV licence? The Men from Mars must think we're completely mad.
By Jack Doyle
A good shorthand measure of whether any aspect of public policy stands up to scrutiny is the alien from Mars test.
What would the little green men think of something or other were they to land on earth tomorrow (and, despite their overwhelming technological superiority, decide to simply examine us rather than yoke us all into servitude or strip our planet of all its resources).
Today we reveal an element of criminal justice policy which would, I suspect, have the Martians dismissing us all as a civilisation hardly worthy of the description and jumping straight back on to their spaceships.
That is the television Licence Fee, the £145 and change which we are all required to cough up every year to go on owning a television set.
The money goes straight into the coffers of that broadcasting behemoth, the BBC, irrespective of whether we watch it or even, in fact, if our sole interaction with it is to clench our jaw and grind our teeth every morning over what is served up by the Today programme.
But this is an argument not about the justness of the Licence Fee itself - and there are plenty of good arguments around that - but about the regime for collecting it, and the punishments given to non-payers.
The law as it stands allows TV Licence inspectors to take you to court if they discover you watching your TV without a licence - even if you agree to pay on the spot.
Last year a staggering 165,000 people were brought before the bench, and 140-odd thousand were given a criminal record for not having their fee.
It means Licence Fee evasion is the most prosecuted of all 'crimes' in England and Wales, with all the costs in court time that uses up.
The people passing sentence in these cases, the lay magistracy, have been calling for TV licence evasion to be decriminalised for two decades.
Heaven knows why no-one has heeded their call. A criminal record, even for something like TV Licence evasion, is a serious mark against your name, and shouldn't be given out for what amounts to a very minor infringement of our laws. How does it compare, as a crime, to, say, shoplifting, do we think? Or vandalism, or public drunkenness and thuggery?
These, surely, are a much graver scourge of our society than failing to pay for the BBC.
More than 3,000 people a week are being hauled before the courts for not having a TV licence.
And yet you can steal goods worth £200, or cause £500 worth of criminal damage and be handed a fixed penalty notice by the police for the sum of £80.
There were 75,000 of these handed out last year.
So for smashing up a bus shelter, or painting a wall or stealing from a business you walk away with your name intact and a small fine.
But the army of TV licence officials will hunt you down, knock on your door and haul you to court if you don't have a TV licence? The Men from Mars must think we're completely mad.
