Enforcement, fines and the mystery of detector vans

The TV Licensing body holds a database of around 31 million licensed and unlicensed UK addresses. All TV Licensing enforcement officers have access to this database and can tell whether or not a property holds a current TV licence. According to a recent statement ( www. snipca.com/33596), TV Licensing makes “more than 7,500 visits across the UK a day”, focusing on unlicensed addresses where occupants have ignored previous attempts to make contact. Not all visits lead to prosecution, and the majority of first-time offenders are not prosecuted if they buy a licence before their court date.

The legendary fleet of detector vans (pictured) still exists, too. The precise way these are supposed to work is a closely guarded secret – so secret, in fact, that detection engineers work in isolation, so that even they don’t know how the other detection methods work (yes, that sounds a bit fishy to us too). Needless to say, this has led to some people believing the vans can’t actually detect TV use at all and are simply used to remind people about the TV licence.

In 2016 reports surfaced about the BBC potentially using Wi-fi packet-sniffing tools to spy on private home networks and identify households that were using iplayer without a licence.

The BBC quickly rebuffed the claim, saying that “while we don’t discuss the details of how detection works for obvious reasons, it is wrong to suggest that our technology involves capturing data from private Wi-fi networks”.

If they do come knocking, TV Licensing officers have no legal right to enter your property without your permission. Unless they have an official search warrant, you’re within your rights to send them packing. However, if you are found to be evading the licence fee, you can expect a £1,000 fine.