- The ruthless tactics used by BBC licence fee collectors have been exposed
- Families hounded by BBC licence fee collectors have called them ‘intimidating’
- Accused officials of snooping through windows and forcing their way into homes
- Vulnerable people threatened into paying £145.50 fee when it was not necessary
- Have you been hounded by licence fee bullies? Contact our Investigations Unit via tvlicence@dailymail.co.uk
Under an aggressive incentive scheme, hundreds of enforcement officers have orders to each catch 28 evaders a week.
Bosses promise bonuses of up to £15,000 a year, saying staff must gather evidence to take as many people to court as possible.
Homeowners who fail to pay can be fined and given criminal records.
Among the vulnerable targeted in the past seven days are a war veteran with dementia and a desperate young mother in a women’s refuge.
The revelations come from an investigation by a Daily Mail undercover reporter interviewed for an enforcement job by Capita.
The outsourcing firm is paid £58million a year to collect licence fees for the BBC, bringing in £3.74billion a year.
The reporter was told by bosses: ‘We will drive you as hard as we can to get as much as we can out of you because we’re greedy.’ He was encouraged to spy on homes and take money on the doorstep.
‘Cash, debit, credit card, we’ll take anything,’ one TV Licensing manager said. ‘I tell people I’ll take shirt buttons.’
Last night, the BBC ordered an urgent investigation into the Mail’s findings, insisting there would be ‘swift and appropriate action’.
Culture Secretary Karen Bradley will question the BBC’s director general Tony Hall about the Mail’s findings in the coming days. Capita’s bosses also face being hauled before MPs.
The Government is now under renewed pressure to decriminalise the so-called ‘TV tax’ and crack down on the aggressive way in which payments are pursued.
The Mail’s undercover investigation found that:
- Officials are encouraged to snoop on neighbourhoods to try to work out when residents are in;
- They gather evidence by informal chats, followed by an official caution;
- If allowed inside they check TVs to gather evidence;
- Residents who agree to pay up can still be prosecuted.
Households must have a licence to watch or record live TV programmes on any channel and when using BBC iPlayer. The rules apply to any device from a TV set to a games console.
Failure to pay can result in a criminal conviction and a £1,000 penalty. Thirty-eight people – mostly women – were jailed last year for not paying the fine.
Capita bosses told our reporter of the aggressive incentive system they have devised to bring in as much licence fee cash as possible from home vists. Agents arrange card payments, direct debits and weekly payment plans and take cash.
The firm’s 330 field officers are told they must hit a target – the ‘magic 28’ – the number of evaders an officer must catch a week, signing them up to pay.
Capita officers can be paid £20-£25 for each person they snare over 28.
Damian Collins, the Tory chairman of the Commons culture committee, described the Mail’s evidence as ‘damning’. He said he would demand answers from BBC chief Lord Hall.
‘It’s very concerning. This is being done in the BBC’s name,’ he added. ‘The BBC needs to make sure changes are made to the way this contract is being run or that it’s taken away from Capita and given to someone else.’
Labour MP Chris Matheson, who also sits on the committee, called for Capita bosses to be summoned to Parliament.
He added: ‘If there are people who deliberately avoid paying the licence fee they should face consequences.
‘But going after soft easy vulnerable targets to boost Capita’s profits undermines the BBC and TV Licensing.’
A spokesman for the Department for Culture Media and Sport said: ‘These reports are obviously concerning. The licence fee needs to be collected in a fair and reasonable manner.
‘The BBC has, quite rightly, ordered an urgent investigation and ministers will be raising this issue with them directly.’
About 180,000 people each year are charged with not paying their licence fee. The subsequent prosecutions account for around one in ten of all criminal cases in England and Wales.
Capita said its incentive scheme applies to sales of licence fees only and not to the number of people officers interview so they can be taken to court. The firm said it only prosecuted as a last resort.
It said comments made by the Capita bosses to the undercover reporter ‘do not reflect the high standards we expect’.
A spokesman added: ‘Capita is required by the BBC to ensure households are not breaking the law. Officers are expected to act in a professional manner.
‘We strongly refute any allegation that officers are instructed to act outside of these requirements. Where we find employees have not acted as they should we act appropriately.’
The BBC said there had been a 50 per cent reduction in complaints made to TV Licensing since 2010.
A spokesman added: ‘We are very disappointed by the conduct of Capita’s interviewing managers in this particular case which is not in line with the high standards we expect. We have asked Capita to investigate urgently.’
- Have you been hounded by licence fee bullies? Contact our Investigations Unit via tvlicence@dailymail.co.uk
COLLECTION FIRM'S BOSS IS PAID £2.7M
The firm that collects licence fees for the BBC is run by a fat cat executive on a pay package of £51,000 a week.
Capita’s chief executive Andy Parker, 47, earned £2.68million in 2015.
The outsourcing giant nicknamed ‘Crapita’ by the magazine Private Eye, runs more than 100 businesses and brings in revenue of £4.6billion a year.
Some £2billion of this is from public sector contracts such as assessing benefits claimants and collecting taxes. Capita owns ParkingEye – the private parking company that has been accused of aggressively chasing payments from NHS patients.
Mr Parker was promoted from deputy chief executive of Capita in March 2014, four months after it bought ParkingEye for £23.9million.
Last year, the Daily Mail revealed how ParkingEye has had more than 60,000 county court judgments taken out against drivers in the past three years. These leave people with a damaging black mark on their credit files.
Capita last year faced paying up to £25million over delays in upgrading London’s congestion charging system.
The firm was meant to complete an IT overhaul of the system by August but it went live at the end of September.
Shares fell to a three-year low after the delay was announced as part of a wider trading update from Capita, wiping £1.7billion off the firm’s value.
Mr Parker, who lives in a £2million home in Warwickshire with his wife and two sons, said at the time: ‘Our delivery wasn’t up to the standard expected.’
A Capita spokesman said: ‘Andy Parker’s salary remains one of the lowest among CEOs of similar sized FTSE companies.’
We'll drive you hard - we're greedy: TV licensing boss boasts of high-pressure techniques and doorstep trickery he orders his staff to use when hounding people on their doorstep
In the back room of a Holiday Inn Express, Ian Doyle is briefing his latest recruit.
The silver-haired former casino boss – wearing a pin stripe shirt and a thick red tie – is sitting behind a large meeting room table strewn with papers.
A large silver watch jangles on his left wrist as he waves his arm in the air.
‘We will drive you as hard as we can to get as much as we can out of you because we’re greedy,’ he declares. ‘Everybody’s target driven. You’ve got your target, I’ll have a target, my boss has a target and so it goes on up the chain of command.’
Who is Mr Doyle? And what is this high-pressured job, which requires such ruthless pursuit of cash?
Despite his tough words, Mr Doyle is not a Wall Street financier, or even an ambitious car salesman. He is an area manager for Capita – the outsourcing giant that earns more than £2billion a year from public sector contracts.
Capita collects taxes and assesses benefit claimants for the Government. It is also entrusted by the BBC – and paid £59million a year – to collect the £145.50 licence fee.
On a rainy Tuesday morning in January, Mr Doyle is at the Holiday Inn in Chingford, East London. He and his colleague, Lanre Coker-Ojo, are interviewing candidates hoping to be a BBC licence fee enforcement officer.
These are the officials who visit homes where there is no registered licence and sell TV licences. They question residents and make sure they sign up if they watch TV or BBC iPlayer. Last year alone, they turned up at three million properties – and caught 298,000 evaders.
Using handheld machines, they can register homeowners for direct debits on their doorsteps.
They even take cash from those who can only spare a few coins.
‘We’re looking to get 28 licence sales per week from each officer,’ Mr Doyle tells our undercover reporter. ‘As soon as you hit that magic 28, there’s a bonus – a commission scheme.’
The salary is £20,000 a year, but, as Mr Doyle explains, ‘You can earn another thousand, fifteen hundred pounds a month.
‘If you spend 15 minutes going from door to door and they are only about two minutes apart then you’re not going to see enough customers,’ says Mr Doyle.
‘Not seeing enough customers, you’re not going to be generating enough return to the company and the company will be kicking my backside to say what’s going on.
‘Cash, debit, credit card, we’ll take anything. I tell people I’ll take shirt buttons. I’ve not had to take any yet. It’s just an ice breaker.’ Mr Doyle explains that for each sale on a doorstep, TV Licensing officers are required to complete a ‘conviction statement’.
Conviction statements are the forms Capita officers fill in during home visits. They record whether they have noticed a TV through a front window, or heard a programme playing.
They take notes of everything that is said in conversation with a customer – including their name and whether they admitted watching TV or BBC iPlayer.
For the conviction statement to be admissible in court, the officials have to give a formal police-style warning about their right to silence and that anything they say could be used against them.
Shockingly, Mr Doyle advises the undercover reporter to compile evidence against residents for conviction statements by chatting to them informally – before then reading them the caution. This suggests people could have no idea they may get dragged to court when answering seemingly friendly questions at their front doors.
Hit the magic 28 sales a week and there’s a bonus
TV Licensing has always maintained that it would prefer people to buy a licence rather than be prosecuted. Capita says its bonus scheme is based only on sales of licence fees and not convictions.
But Mr Doyle tells the undercover reporter that even if people pay when they are visited at home, they can still be prosecuted, given a criminal record – and made to pay more money in court fines.
‘You can only get the sale with a conviction statement so basically you’ve got to take 28 conviction statements before you can start hitting extra money,’ Mr Doyle tells the undercover reporter. ‘The more you get, you earn more money. That’s all it is.’
During the 90-minute interview it is clear the Capita bosses have little time for money problems, family bereavements or – as Mr Doyle puts it – ‘sob stories’.
‘It is not a difficult job, I can’t stress that enough,’ he says.
‘But it is quite difficult as soon as you throw in these things called members of the public. Because for whatever reason they’ve all got a story.
‘You’ll get nearly all the information you need for a conviction statement in the first 40 seconds of conversation with the customer.
‘But it will still take you five or ten minutes to actually get it down onto the form because they’re going to constantly interrupt you.
‘So it’s just a case of learning the listening skills, the empathy skills but getting the hand working at the same time.’
Mr Coker-Ojo regularly interjects, apparently keen to ensure the reporter is tough enough. ‘The customer says: “Listen I can’t afford to pay.” What would you do? And how would that make you feel?’ Mr Coker-Ojo asks.
Mr Doyle brags: ‘One of my officers – my highest performing officer – generally comes in around about 38 to 42 sales a week. They’re obviously after more money. My guy really goes for it.’
As well as the interview, the bosses set a written challenge to show the best times for catching different types of people at home.
In 2011, the BBC gave Capita a £560million contract to administer the licence fee for eight years. Since then, revenue for the BBC from collections has risen by more than £200million to £3.74billion.
Residents have complained repeatedly that Capita staff have hounded them unfairly to force payments and refused to believe them if they said they did not watch TV.
Particularly concerning are figures that show far more women than men are jailed for not paying licence fee evasion fines.
Out of 38 people jailed for the offence in 2015, 20 were women. Five were in their fifties. They served an average of 24 days each. In 2014, 39 people were locked up for the offence and 28 of them were women.
Experts believe this is because women are more likely to answer the door and be willing to answer questions.
For whatever reason they all have a story
Capita says it does not target women or vulnerable people and that any ‘pertinent’ questions are put to residents only after a caution has been given. It says officers work out when people are home because this is more cost-efficient.
A spokesman added: ‘The suggested content of the recruitment interview does not reflect the high standards that we expect, and paints a wholly misleading picture of the culture, skills and attitude of TV Licensing’s operation.’
The BBC says there is no evidence women are unfairly targeted and that where a first time offender pays before court TV Licensing will drop the case.
A spokesman added: ‘TV Licensing goes to great lengths to encourage people to buy a licence, and will only visit when other methods have not worked. It’s our policy to only prosecute evaders as a last resort.’
From an RAF man with dementia to a mother in a woman's refuge - no one's safe from the bullies
Families hounded by BBC licence fee collectors last night called them ‘intimidating’.
They accused officials of snooping through windows and forcing their way into their homes.
Some said vulnerable loved ones have been left so frightened by threats of prosecution that they paid the £145.50 TV Licence fee even when it was not necessary.
Over the past month, the Mail has spoken to people across the UK who complain of being treated unfairly by licence fee officials.
They include an RAF veteran with dementia and a young mother taken to court after being hounded by a TV Licensing officer at a women’s refuge. A Methodist church was also targeted – even though there is clearly no TV inside.
HARASSED AT A WOMEN’S REFUGE
A young mum was hounded by a TV Licensing officer at a women’s refuge. Elke-Dee Watson, 27, took sanctuary there after threats by a former partner.
But six days after moving in, an enforcement officer confronted her on her doorstep.
He was let in through security gates by a neighbour who thought he must have known Miss Watson as he was calling her by name.
Miss Watson was accused of evading the licence for the six days she had lived there. There was already a TV inside, left by a previous tenant. Feeling threatened, Miss Watson agreed to sign up to a TV licence payment plan.
But despite agreeing to pay, she received a summons a few days later. At Nuneaton Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, the case was thrown out.
Miss Watson, who has a six-year-old child, said: ‘The man who visited me was a big chap. That intimidated me as I wasn’t expecting anybody. I’m glad it’s over now.’ A TV Licensing spokesman said: ‘At time of visiting, we were unaware of Miss Watson’s personal circumstances.’
RAF VETERAN WITH DEMENTIA
A former RAF officer with dementia who forgot to renew his licence was told by a Capita official that he did not have time to ‘listen to excuses’.
The Kosovo war veteran, 46, who asked not to be named, had paid the bill on a rolling direct debit for the last 12 years. But in October, he forgot to check if the money was taken from his account.
A ‘thuggish’ licensing officer forced his way into his home and refused to take his health problems into account. The case was only dropped on Tuesday when a doctor wrote to Nuneaton magistrates. The man has a terminal brain tumour, spinal tumours and early onset dementia.
He said: ‘I’d only opened the door a couple of inches but before he even introduced himself, he stuck his foot in the door. He offered to pay then, but was told the only option was to go to court.
A TV Licensing spokesman said: ‘We withdrew the case once further information came to light.’
CHURCH HOUNDED FOR PAYMENTS
A church in Nottinghamshire has been hounded for payments by TV Licensing. East Leake Methodist Church has received about four letters per year, threatening fines of up to £1,000 for fee evasion.
Each time, treasurer Roger Latham has replied saying there are no TVs in the building.
Mr Latham, 66, wrote in one letter: ‘Only God lives here and he knows everything, so doesn’t need to watch the television.’
Mr Latham, former chief executive of Nottinghamshire County Council, said the letters began arriving in 2009. He said: ‘I sent all the letters back saying: “This is a church”.
They only stopped when Mr Latham told TV Licensing he feared the church’s address was being used by others trying to evade the fee.
He added: ‘People who don’t need the licence are treated like those who are being fraudulent.
A spokesman for TV Licensing said: ‘We updated our database last May to ensure mailings to the Church stopped.’
FINED £220 FOR WATCHING ONE SHOW
Fashion worker Leanne Dutton phoned TV Licensing last year to tell officials she had watched one episode of Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks without a licence.
The young mum was worried she might have broken the law, but was allegedly assured she did not have to pay as it was a one-off.
Six days later, Miss Dutton, 25, was visited by an enforcement officer. She has since been fined and has a criminal record.
Miss Dutton, of Hyde, Greater Manchester, who has a six-year-old son Ellis, cancelled her licence and stopped watching terrestrial TV to save money.
But last August, she reconnected the set to watch Hollyoaks.
Days later, a Capita official arrived at her home. Miss Dutton said: ‘He really banged on the door.
'I initially thought it must be the police because it was so forceful.’
She was found guilty on Thursday of using the set without a licence, was fined £60 and ordered to pay £130 in prosecution costs and a £30 victim surcharge.
