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Wednesday 4 February 2009

Oh, the Hypocrisy

I've just been watching the BBC's Watchdog programme (broadcast 2 Feb 09) on the iPlayer.

The team were investigating malicious debt recovery companies - companies that bombard innocent individuals with harassing correspondence when they don't actually owe any money at all.

So that's a bit like TV Licensing then.

Paul Heiney's report started off: "Last week we reported how hundreds of you had received threatening letters from a company called Lowell Group, demanding money for debts that weren't explained and sometimes didn't exist."

So that's a bit like TV Licensing then.

Beccy Bowden-Wilks of the National Debtline chipped into the report: "They're (the dodgy companies) are breaching the OFT guidelines by saying that the burden of proof is on the debtor to prove that they're not the person that they're looking for. That isn't the case. The burden of proof is on the lender."

So these dodgy companies, unable to produce any evidence at all of some one's guilt, place the onus on them to prove their innocence.

That's classic TV Licensing behaviour too.

Heiney concludes the report by saying: "And before they (the dodgy companies) issue their threats perhaps they ought to just get their facts straight."

Again, advice that TV Licensing would do well to heed.

Funnily enough I don't suppose Watchdog will be investigating how the BBC's own debt recovery agents wrongly target and harass innocent non-TV viewers.

It would be interesting to put them to the test!

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