The Present Occupier has received this latest missive from the folks at TV Licensing:

We have reason to believe your address is unlicensed. Your details have been passed to a TV Licensing Enforcement Officer who will be visiting your street soon.

Below this is a table that states, “Amount due: �116.00″ and “Payment due: IMMEDIATELY”. In tiny print below it reads, “If you have recently purchased a license, please ignore this letter”, and you have to read to the bottom of the page for, “Please see reverse for important TV Licensing Information, including exclusions and how to pay.”

In effect this is an invoice, not dissimilar to the one sent out by Nodots, who the ASA upheld a complaint against. In that case,

The Authority considered that, although the smallprint on the mailing stated “Should you not want a Qname, please disregard the invoice”, the invoice section of the mailing did not make clear enough that it was merely a marketing communication offering an Internet service. The Authority concluded that the mailing was misleading.

By these standards, the TV Licensing letter is certainly misleading. It is also obnoxious and threatening. But what can you expect from goons paid to extract protection money?

Related Link: I came across a TV Licensing Mini-FAQ that explains when you need a TV license and when you don’t, and how TV Licensing try to obfuscate this information.

Previous Episodes: Not Owning A TV Licence Is A Crime; TV Licence Update; TV Licence Update 2.

Posted by Rob Fisher as Authorised Theft, TV Licensing at 11:05 AM EST

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