No tv licence magistrates court date

[munchkin104]

Hi guy's
really need some advice here regarding a tv licence, sorry if this is long winded but i think you should know all the fact's.
On Thursday 24/09/2015 my property was visited by a tv licence inspector from capita. my wife was home alone, he introduced himself as a tv licence inspector, flashing an id card for about 2 seconds. i have told the wife under no circumstance does she let anyone into the house without my being there, so the whole of the interview was conducted on the doorstep.
he produced a TVL178 form and proceeded to fire questions as follows.
1) DO YOU LIVE HERE.....ANSWER YES
2)DO YOU HAVE A TELEVISION HERE?.......ANSWER YES
3)DO YOU HAVE A TV LICENCE?.......AS FAR AS I KNOW I HAVE A VALID TV LICENCE.
(LICENCE PRODUCED-DETAILS)..BARCODE PAYMENT LETTER PRODUCED SEEMS VALID UNTIL 31/11/2015 (TV LICENCE INSPECTORS OBSERVATION OF TV LICENCE)
4) WIFE CAUTIONED BY INSPECTOR.
5) MAY I COME IN AND INSPECT SET..........ANSWER NO( due to me saying to let no one in while i'm not there)
6) TV SET SEEN.......NO
7) PROGRAMMES SEEN/HEARD...NONE SEEN=HEARD TV
8) CHANNELS TESTED.....NONE TESTED=ALL CHANNELS RECEIVED VIA VIRGIN DIGI BOX (WIFE FREELY GAVE INFORMATION ABOUT VIRGIN)
9) TV MAKE.....SAMSUNG (AGAIN FREELY GAVE INFORMATION)
10) WHEN WAS SET INSTALLED........NO CLUE......(since we have lived here for 10 years i don't see the relevance of this question)
11) WHEN DID YOU FIRST USE THIS SET AT THIS ADDRESS WITHOUT A VALID LICENCE....AS FAR AS I AM CONCERNED I HAVE NOT DONE, THOUGHT LICENCE IS OK
12)WHEN DID YOU LAST USE YOUR TV TO WATCH LIVE PROGRAMMES HERE.....ITS ON AT THE MOMENT?
13)IS THE SET OWNED..........YES
14) DO YOU HAVE SATALITE, FREE VIEW ECT..........VIRGIN MEDIA

Then they went into personal details such as.....date of birth.....occupation......national insurance number..(for what reason do they need national insurance number??)
15) I HAVE TO TELL YOU BLAH BLAH BLAH,...DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING ELSE TO SAY............I AM CERTAIN I HAVE A VALID LICENCE, MY LETTER SHOWS VALID UNTIL DECEMBER 2015

The original licence was in my name but because the wife was a responsible adult in the property at the time she has got the summons.
i may have missed some payment's on the tv licensing cash scheme but nothing like for months in arrears with it.
i never received any letter to say this licence was revoked.
the wife was sent a new payment card in her name on starting on 24/09/2015 with a new customer number and a new tv licence that expires on 31/08/2016 and all payments on this new licence are upto date....checked via bank statement
where do i stand on a legal standing as this was not a deliberate attempt to defraud anyone out of any monies for the licence.
she answered all questions she was asked truthfully and was under the impression all was well with the tv licence. as we still do since no letter has been received to state otherwise.
any advice would be greatly appreciated.
we are summoned to magistrates court on the 18/02/2016
should we plead guilty to this, for which i would not be happy about..since i dont think we have done anything wrong..but a cheaper fine.
or plead not guilty and let capita explain why they think we are licence dodgers...
thank you all in advance and keep up the sterling work for the working masses/unemployed/and those less fortunate than our selfs

[wales01man]

Re: No tv licence magistrates court date

Did you have a valid licence on the day of the Visit?

[munchkin104]

Re: No tv licence magistrates court date

well we had a licence in the sense that the one we had was never nulled or any letter saying the licence had been cancelled by tv licenceing. as far as i was concerned the licence was still valid albeit may have been a few weeks in arrears, what i was trying to say was if it was not valid then watching tv was not an intentional error on our part and we was not intentionally trying to avoid paying the licence fee, if that makes sense.
thanks for the quick response that is awsome:tongue2:

[wales01man]

Re: No tv licence magistrates court date

Mpre advice from those better able to help will come I can understand your defense needs refining I think wait and help will com

[munchkin104]

Re: No tv licence magistrates court date

thank you wales01man im sure they will

[R0b]

Re: No tv licence magistrates court date

You could either contact the person in charge of dealing with the summons, speak over the phone to see if this can be sorted out prior to court as it has been an innocent mistake and the fact that your letter states that it was until december 2015. you received no correspondence to say otherwise. The TV licence person gave no information as to why he was there just simply started asking questions nor did he say the house is not registered as having a valid TV licence.

If they refuse, put exactly what you have stated in writing to TV Licence refer to the fact that you spoke to such and such who refused to take into account what you said. If you are adamant that you never received anything from the TV licence people that you do not have a licence (includes mistaken letters you though were junk) then you say that to the court and that she would be prepared to put that in an affidavit, but also show them the letter that you had received saying licence valid until december 2015. You received no reminders that the licence was due for renewal and therefore innocently presumed that the TV licence was valid.

I say do it over the phone because it will be quicker than sending by email or post - try to get a point of contact dealing with your case as it means you wont be running round in circles trying to get a response.

[munchkin104]

Re: No tv licence magistrates court date

thanks rob, that seem's like good advice so will get onto right away, will update with their response