I want to take tv licensing to court compensation and I don't know where to start.

[amber85]

Last year I was having a bit of trouble paying my licence and someone came to the door. I explained my situation and asked how much I owed he refused to say and then he told me what later turned out to be a pack of lies. When I had been paying my new tvl for quite some time I received a summons to court for £60 fine plus costs.I took it to my local solicitor and he told me to fill in the guilty plea on the summons and post it back. He said the government won't pay leagl aid for tvl case's as they are not considered criminal and is a waste of money. "It will be easier to just pay the fine". I then phoned the number on the summons and asked for the witness to be present at court ( rep who came to the door). I believed his treatment and manipulation of me was totally unfair. I then phoned tvl and asked for a copy of all payments and correspondence between myself and them in advance of appearing at court and pleading not guilty. When I got to court I had no response from tvl about my account, so when I was waiting to appear and plead not guilty it was on the ground that I believed that I had credit on my tvl account when my circumstances changed for the worst and I fell into arrears. At the time I had no recollection of a reminder from them so at the time I was surprised that my account had been cancelled and I was without a licence. Instantaneously forcing me to open a new account. On the easy payment plan you pay double payments for the first 6 months. So forcing me to close and open an account when I am nearly finished my double payment period only increases the amount my initial licence costs. I was disputing the amount owed and the period of time it was late in being paid. I believed I should have been given this information and allowed to pay the rest of my licence. I continued still to pay my licence and bought it outright by the time I had been to court. It was adjourned following the prosecution misrepresenting himself and threatening me among other things. I made a complaint about him with still just 1 letter from tvl totally dodging every point I made and with no reference to this man's behaviour or the man who was at my door lying to me for commission. After all this I was granted full disclosure by the magistrates which I still haven't received, tvl claim they sent it to the wrong address, an address which was unoccupied when tvl were last in the area. The new tenants do not recall receiving any mail addressed to me. When I appeared back at court for the adjournment I had been busy looking all the law around this and had sent tvl my disclosure stating my grievance and why I felt I was not guilty in the hope they would drop the case against me, but they didn't. I also sent that letter to the BBC and the courts. Before I entered the court another prosecutor approached me and told me that they had wrote to tell me not to appear and that the case was going to be dropped yet the court was expecting and ready to hear my case when I got there. There is so much to this that I'm just not sure what to do with it. I think I need a solicitor who specialises in this sort of thing and who could do no win no fee or legal aid.

[labman]

Re: I want to take tv licensing to court compensation and I don't know where to start

Do you have a law centre near you who could offer advice?

http://www.lawcentres.org.uk/

[bluebottle]

Re: I want to take tv licensing to court compensation and I don't know where to start

It sounds to me that Crapita are engaging in the same unethical tactics as DVLA. Bring this to the attention of the court.

If, in the meantime, you receive notification of a fine, you will need to seek legal advice from your local Law Centre, as per Labman's post.

[amber85]

Re: I want to take tv licensing to court compensation and I don't know where to start

I don't have a law centre near me but thanks for the link. I can possibly try citizens advice. This whole thing caused me trouble to my health and I'm still experiencing anxiety because of this. I have kept a record of details from my all my encounters with them so I can display how much they have harassed me. I am hoping that someone can point me in the direction of a decent legal firm who can pursue this for me. when tvl lies to turn over a profit and then will pressure and manipulate the defendant in a threatening manner to get them to change their plea. If I I behaved like this it would be considered criminal and it seems to me that they can behave this way and think it's perfectly acceptable to do this. They must be doing this sort of thing on a daily basis to countless people and it's wrong.

[wales01man]

Re: I want to take tv licensing to court compensation and I don't know where to start

Was there a valid licence in place on the date of this if it is offence?

[amber85]

Re: I want to take tv licensing to court compensation and I don't know where to start

Prior to the date of the date of the offence my account was in credit and I believed I was near to paying the last of my payments for the year. When the rep came to my door I disputed the amount left to pay and the amount of missed payments, he would not give me this info, saying he did not have access, which I now believe to be a lie. He contradicted himself when he told me not to worry everything will be okay ad he could see that I had been making regular payments above the requested amount on a regular basis. So I asked to make a payment and catch up and he said I could not do that, because due late payment my account had been cancelled and the only choice I had was to set up a new account and pay again or face prosecution. So I did so and still faced prosecution. So in answer to your question I did believe that at that point I did still have a valid licence however was being told otherwise. Only at this point was in aware of this situation. Also does it not stand to reason that on an easy payment scheme, buying one years licence in six month ur always ahead of payments and in credit! This was my argument. Non of the information I had requested from the rep and also tvl during court case has ever been received to this day, even five month after court case.

[wales01man]

Re: I want to take tv licensing to court compensation and I don't know where to start

Was there a licence valid on the date ?
sorry to say but believing is not the same as having

[amber85]

Re: I want to take tv licensing to court compensation and I don't know where to start

According to tvl I did not. But they still have not disclosed any info to support this after a magistrates ordered them to and I had disputed the fact. I have now bought another licence and am starting payments on my new license for this year. not having a licence is no longer the issue. The issue now is how they lied and manipulated a busy mother and a magistrates court to gain profit and secure a conviction. I did not deny at any point that if I did not have a license I was guilty. But when asked to prove my guilt after examples of malpractice became evident they lied to keep me from displaying their actions to a magistrates court. My offence is no longer relevant to this case. It is the behaviour of tvl that is the issue now.

[wales01man]

Re: I want to take tv licensing to court compensation and I don't know where to start

Would think you were convicted because you had no valid licence as for issues with TVL do they have a complaints procedure or an ombudsman or similar going to court aginst this type of orginisation could prove costly please take proper legal advice could be the best thing at the moment,i deplore these actions by TVL or anyone but advice i have read shows they will spend big money to win someone more knoweledgable than me will give further advice im sure.
Whatever action you take good luck

[amber85]

Re: I want to take tv licensing to court compensation and I don't know where to start

Thanks I'll bear that in mind. And your right, it is strange that I was not convicted. But I just need to find the right type of solicitor for the job I think.

[amber85]

Re: I want to take tv licensing to court compensation and I don't know where to start

I have made a formal complaint to tvl, the BBC and the court. Also the letter of response I had from tvl was totally dismissive of their employees actions. And their was not an apology in sight. That was just before Christmas and it was then I decided wanted compensated. Not only for the inconvenience but also for the stress and the medical issues I have suffered with since this time.

[Mysrerio]

Re: I want to take tv licensing to court compensation and I don't know where to start

I have made a formal complaint to tvl, the BBC and the court. Also the letter of response I had from tvl was totally dismissive of their employees actions. And their was not an apology in sight. That was just before Christmas and it was then I decided wanted compensated. Not only for the inconvenience but also for the stress and the medical issues I have suffered with since this time.

Good for you amber, hope it all goes in your favor, it's just my view but I think the whole way the TV license is enforced is dodgy and a scandal in itself to add the BBC's collection of scandals,their methods are almost borderline illegal of itself the way they threaten people, I've missed payments on my payment card and I've had the usual letters, I even rang them up last week to see if I could come to some arrangement but they wanted me to pay £20 over the phone which I don't have at the moment and won't till I get paid, they said they'd give me till last Monday then they will cancel it, presumably it is canceled now, I hope I can sort it out but frankly compared with other debts I have at the moment I hardly consider the TV license to be such a bit deal, I wish it was all I had to worry about, as for these so called TV detector vans and their "top secret sophisticated equipment" for detecting who's watching TV without a license they've been boasting about for 5 decades...ohhhh puhleeese, what do they take the public for??, I wish they'd just come out and admit it's all a load of baloney, everyone knows it is.

[wales01man]

Re: I want to take tv licensing to court compensation and I don't know where to start

I can understand why anyone though hardship gets behind with licence payments but remember TVL dont give a monkees its to easy to take someone to court and get them fined magistrates dont look at the other person its i suspect its all done like the council tax summonses

[Mysrerio]

Re: I want to take tv licensing to court compensation and I don't know where to start

I can understand why anyone though hardship gets behind with licence payments but remember TVL dont give a monkees its to easy to take someone to court and get them fined magistrates dont look at the other person its i suspect its all done like the council tax summonses

Of course and the absurd thing about it is that obviously if someone is in hardship and can't afford to meet the normal payment which in most cases will be the reason, then it's completely and utterly pointless to then charge them a fine that is ten times as high, they'll just get into even deeper financial difficulties than they're already in, makes about as much sense as burning and executing witches did in the 17th Century, the same illogical, savage and brutal mentality of "thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" is alive and well in the UK, just applied in a different and modern format that's all.

[enquirer]

Re: I want to take tv licensing to court compensation and I don't know where to start

Before I entered the court another prosecutor approached me and told me that they had wrote to tell me not to appear and that the case was going to be dropped yet the court was expecting and ready to hear my case when I got there.

That's nasty, really nasty.