Copycat TV licence firm’s £21 rip-off fee

T.B. writes: My wife renewed our TV licence online but unfortunately through a website which came top of the Google listings when she searched for how to do this. The website was run by a firm called Licence Plus Limited and she was charged £175.50 on her debit card. We contacted the firm and were told twice we would be refunded but we have received nothing.

AS YOU discovered, Licence Plus has no official status. The real TV Licensing authority warned on its website that, ‘Licence Plus charges customers an additional fee for buying a TV licence or changing details, when these are services we provide for free.’ Your TV licence should have cost £154.50 (Since April 1 it has risen to £157.50). The extra £21 you paid went to Licence Plus Limited, based in Polegate in East Sussex and run by Benjamin Leonard.

Many Government agencies have similarly complained that websites have sprung up with copycat names, sometimes doing little more than forwarding application forms to the real agency. As well as his TV licence website, Leonard operates a similar site at passports-office. co.uk, which of course is nothing to do with the real Passport Office.

After I contacted Leonard, he refunded your £175.50 in full, but justified his charges by saying he offered frills such as payment by instalments. His company seems to be in trouble though. It has failed to file accounts at Companies House, which is an offence, and its website now warns that its bankers have frozen incoming card payments in anticipation of chargeback claims.