Daily Mail

DUPED ON THEIR DOORSTEP

Homeowners tell the Mail how they ended up in court after ‘friendly chats’ with licence officers

- Sara Smyth, Glen Keogh and Lucy Osborne

FURIOUS homeowners contacted the Mail yesterday to tell of their ordeals at the hands of licence fee bullies.

They told of being ‘duped’ at their front doors by agents talking to them informally – before they were hauled to court.

NURSE TRICKED INTO CONFESSION

MARTHA Cottrell, 20, barely had time to unpack her bags at her new student house when a TV Licensing officer ‘ duped’ her into confessing to watching TV there.

The nursing student explained that it was the first day of her tenancy when the officer knocked on her door. She thought they were having a friendly and casual chat.

When he asked when she had last watched BBC TV, she said yesterday. Miss Cottrell was referring to watching at her family home in Cheshire with her parents, Eddy, 48, a chartered surveyor, and Helen, 48, a university lecturer.

But the officer noted on an official statement that she had confessed to watching TV in the student house in Liverpool. Thinking she was taking a survey, Miss Cottrell then gave her signature, not realising that she had given a confession to illegally watching TV.

Yesterday, she told the Mail: ‘I was just being polite and telling the truth. He made me feel like I was doing the right thing by answering his questions. I had no idea that anything I said could result in a fine or a criminal record. I now feel he was really sneaky being so friendly but giving me no informatio­n.’

Three months after the visit, Miss Cottrell was sent a court summons. ‘I was petrified at the thought of going to court. I broke down in tears,’ she said.

To fight the case, Miss Cottrell would have had to take a day off her training programme on a hospital ward and bring her parents as witnesses to court.

Hoping that her circumstan­ces would be taken into account, Miss Cottrell instead pleaded guilty with mitigating factors and paid the £120 fine.

Her father believed it would be wrong for her to go to court and be taken away from her work.

Miss Cottrell has only ever watched recorded TV at her student home on a battery-powered iPad. Students who use devices not plugged into the mains while away at university, are covered by their parents’ TV licences.

A TV Licensing spokesman said: ‘We are investigat­ing.’

COUNCILLOR HARASSED ON HER OWN DOORSTEP

A PARISH councillor was subjected to a ‘humiliatin­g’ interrogat­ion on her doorstep by a Capita agent despite having paid her TV licence for 40 years.

Andrea Allgood, 68, was questioned for 15 minutes by a ‘prying’ enforcemen­t officer, who demanded she disclose personal details including her national insurance number. But when she tried to show her valid paper TV licence he refused to look at it.

The retired pharmaceut­ical manager said: ‘I did feel embarrasse­d. He just wanted to stand on my doorstep and wouldn’t budge. I try as best I can to be a pillar of the local community so it was galling to have an interrogat­ion done by my front door.

‘We’re from a close-knit, small community and it would be easy for others to misconstru­e what was going on. I didn’t particular­ly want him in my house but it was an embarrassi­ng experience for all to see. And most frustratin­gly, he wouldn’t look at the TV licence I had in the house.’ Mrs Allgood was visited at home by the officer after she received a Capita letter threatenin­g a £1,000 fine and criminal conviction for living in an unlicensed property.

When she phoned up TV Licensing, she was told they could not discuss her case because her TV licence number had been allocated to another address.

She and her husband Fred, 70, spent hours on the phone in an attempt to pass a basic security check and prove that their TV licence was paid in full.

‘I knew everything would work out in the end because I was in the right,’ Mrs Allgood said. ‘But the thought of having to go to court was really upsetting.’

After the pair complained to TV Licensing, officials admitted they had made an administra­tive error. Mr and Mrs Allgood were sent £30 compensati­on, which they donated to charity.

A TV Licensing spokesman said: ‘We are very sorry the Allgoods received a visit from an enquiry officer when they were licensed. We apologised to the Allgoods last November and offered a goodwill gesture.’

SCARED INTO PAYING NEEDLESSLY

JUNE Appleby, 77, was frightened into paying for a TV licence when she did not require one.

The retired Peugeot worker lives with her husband Barrie in sheltered accommodat­ion, which is covered by a communal TV licence. But four years into their stay, the couple received a ‘worrying’ letter through the post which said they must pay for a personal licence or face possible prosecutio­n and a fine of up to £1,000. Mrs Appleby, then 74, paid for the eight months prior to her 75th birthday, after which she was entitled to free licence.

However, a warden later spoke to residents and told them to ignore the letters.

Residents were covered by the licence of the centre in Poole, Dorset. TV Licensing had made a mistake, she said.

Mrs Appleby said: ‘ When you are 74 and you receive a threatenin­g letter saying you haven’t got a TV licence and need to buy one immediatel­y it makes you distressed. I told my husband I would rather pay the £145 than be fined £1,000. The letter frightened us to death.’

Mrs Appleby and her husband, a retired postman, took six months ringing TV Licensing – accruing a ‘phenomenal’ phone bill – to retrieve the money.

A spokesman for TV Licensing said: ‘ We’re glad the issue has been resolved and are sorry if Mrs Appleby suffered any distress. We’re looking into what happened.’

PROSECUTED WHEN HE WAS IN SOUTH AFRICA

A CARE worker was convicted of not paying a TV licence at a property he did not own and while he was living in South Africa. John Wheater, 44, has accused TV Licensing of rushing to prosecutio­ns without making proper checks after his name and date of birth were fraudulent­ly given to a Capita inspector.

Mr Wheater, who has Asperger’s, lived and worked in South Africa between March 2009 and 2013. But he was ‘convicted in his absence’ by magistrate­s of not paying for a TV licence in 2010 for a period that came five months after he had left the UK.

The stamps in his passport proved he was abroad. Mr Wheater, now of Portslade, East Sussex, found out about the court hearing only when he received a letter that threatened a prison term if a £200 fine was not paid immediatel­y. He was stunned to discover he had a criminal record.

Mr Wheater and his partner Mary Lockyer have since been locked in a cycle of correspond­ence with Capita prosecutor­s and magistrate­s’ courts in attempts to have the conviction quashed. Despite making a declaratio­n that he was abroad, Mr Wheater is yet to have the conviction and fine set aside.

He said: ‘I can’t believe how I am being treated. I want my name cleared and I want to be compensate­d for all the stress this has given me.’

Mortgage adviser Miss Lockyer added: ‘Capita and the BBC seem to think they can operate outside the law. Not verifying any identifica­tion and going on to prosecute beggars belief.’

A TV Licensing spokesman said: ‘We have apologised to Mr Wheater for the issues he faced. We act in good faith on the informatio­n provided to us.’

MUM CONVICTED AFTER SHE DIED

THE grieving family of Yvonne Daly discovered she had been prosecuted for not paying her TV licence three months after she died. The mother of five collapsed in the street and suffered a heart attack in April last year, aged just 43.

Her family were shocked to open a local newspaper and see Miss Daly’s name alongside the day’s court outcomes. In July last year, she had been ‘convicted in her absence’ of using a TV without a licence and fined £220 with £120 costs. Helen Moore: ‘It was scary’

Miss Daly’s mother Eileen Cash, from Accrington, Lancashire, said she was ‘disgusted’ with TV Licensing. Mrs Cash, 63, added: ‘She hadn’t long been buried before we found out she had been convicted.

‘It was awful to find out about it in the newspaper. It was completely disrespect­ful. We had to ring the newspaper and the court, saying that she hadn’t paid or attended court because she had passed away.’

The family sent Miss Daly’s death certificat­e to Blackburn Magistrate­s’ Court to ensure the conviction was quashed. She had been struggling with ill health and had told no one of her money problems.

A spokesman for Blackburn Magistrate­s’ Court said: ‘As soon as the circumstan­ces were brought to the attention of the court, the conviction was set aside Fraud victim: John Wheater and the fine was withdrawn.’ A spokesman for TV Licensing said: ‘When prosecutio­n was initiated prior to Miss Daly’s unforeseen and tragic death, the matter passed into the hands of the court. We requested for the case and fine to be withdrawn.’

SPIED ON THROUGH HER CURTAINS

GRANDMOTHE­R of ten Helen Moore has been given a criminal record after falling behind on TV licence payments when her husband lost his job.

The 53-year-old was visited by a TV Licensing officer a year and a half ago at her home in Grimsby, Lincolnshi­re. He caught her watching TV through her living room curtains and demanded that she pay the licence fee at her front door.

Mrs Moore, who works in a butcher shop, gave the official a few pounds that she had in her wallet and apologised.

Her husband Gary, 55, had lost his job as a lorry driver after a fall left him too unwell to work.

They prioritise­d covering their mortgage and utility bills over paying the BBC licence fee.

After at first appearing sympatheti­c, the official from TV Licensing cautioned her and said she faced prosecutio­n for licence fee evasion. ‘It was intimidati­ng,’ Mrs Moore told the Mail. ‘I wasn’t expecting a visit and I was there on my own.

‘My living room curtains were open. He had been on the front, looking through the window.

‘He asked for my bank details but I said I don’t give them out on the doorstep. I said: “I’ve not got the money.” He asked for cash so I paid him all I had in my purse at the time.’

The Capita officer signed Mrs Moore up for £5.60 a week payments to cover the licence fee and the money she owes.

Even though she agreed to pay, she was prosecuted.

In January last year, Mrs Moore was fined £200 at Grimsby and Cleethorpe­s Magistrate­s’ Court with £140 costs.

‘It was really scary,’ she told the Mail. ‘I’ve never been in trouble before but now I have a criminal record. I was made to feel like a scrounger.’

A spokesman for TV Licensing said: ‘Where first time offenders agree to buy a licence via an instalment scheme and maintain payments, they will not be prosecuted.

‘We would only prosecute if payments were not kept up.’

 ??  ?? ‘Interrogat­ion at our door’: Andrea and Fred Allgood
‘Interrogat­ion at our door’: Andrea and Fred Allgood
 ??  ?? Student nurse: Martha Cottrell says she felt duped
Student nurse: Martha Cottrell says she felt duped
 ??  ?? Posthumous conviction: Yvonne Daly and her son Bailey
Posthumous conviction: Yvonne Daly and her son Bailey
 ??  ??
 ??  ??
 ??  ??

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