Hike in number of NW viewers done for TV licence evasion

Two hundred and sixty five prosecutions for TV licence evasion were either dropped or thrown out in Londonderry last year, a whopping 60 per cent year-on-year increase.

The figures were uncovered by anti-licence fee campaigner Caroline Levesque-Bartlett, who has obtained the details of prosecutions in the area through a Freedom of Information request.

She learned that, of 912 such cases taken against suspected licence fee evaders in Londonderry, there were 646 convictions.

Mrs Levesque-Bartlett found that there were a lot more prosecutions for TV-licence evasion in 2015 compared with 2014 when there were 561. There were also more convictions: 646 compared with 395 in 2014. But this also meant there was a huge increase in the number of cases thrown out.

In 2014 there were 166 unsuccessful prosections but in 2015 this had risen by 60 per cent to 265.

Mrs Levesque-Bartlett said: “This year’s is special. We are celebrating 70 years of government endorsed extortion. Since June 1946, no one was able to think of a way of funding the BBC that would not involve a choice, for those who want to opt out, between withholding all TV channels and criminal sanctions.”

She called for the licence fee to be scrapped and has launched a petition calling for a debate on its future

“If certain channels disagree, they go subscription, not withhold access to all other free channels.”

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