A TV Licensing detector van collided with another vehicle as it sped away from one of its surveillance targets.
Last Saturday (8th March 2014) the occupier of a Stoke-on-Trent property noticed a white VW Transporter van, registration number VX09 VEK, parked on the opposite side of the road. He also noticed what appeared to be a camera lens aimed from the van in the general direction of his front room window.
Clearly clued up on goon enforcement tactics, the occupier exited the property, camera rolling, and ran across the road to challenge the occupants of the suspicious looking vehicle. The occupier's video footage, shown in the video below, shows how the van sped off as he approached.
The video doesn't show what happened after the van sped off, which is unfortunate because it almost defies belief. We apologise for the circumspect nature of the remainder of this post, but there is the real possibility that people will end up in court for the events that followed.
The occupier hopped into his car and followed the van in an effort to confirm the identities of the shady-looking characters inside. The camera continued to roll throughout that journey. That video footage, which we are declining to publish at the moment, shows that the occupier's car and the van collided with each other on at least three separate occasions. It is clear that damage was sustained to both vehicles, but for whatever reason the van kept going despite the occupier's attempts to make it stop. The incident captured on video really is more akin to dodgems at the funfair than responsible driving on a public highway.
The occupier contacted the police shortly after the incident and explained that the driver of the van had failed to stop and provide any details. The police helpfully disclosed the name and address of the van's registered keeper, who may or may not have been the person driving. On this occasion we won't share those details here, but they are not difficult to find if you look hard enough. The BBC has previously confirmed that TV Licensing detector vans are registered to the relevant Capita detection manager for the sake of convenience.
We shall be following the progress of this particular incident with a very keen interest.
16 comments:
Time for a sharp exit so the tv advert used to go. Oh the irony.
I've seen the footage of the occupier chasing the Van In my view he drove like a lunatic and committed more driving offensives than I could count. If the Police were to see the Video which I'm sure they will, he will be in hot water. In my view he should never have given chase in the first place, very foolish. I loathe the TV Licence but what this guy did is not the solution, just part of the problem...
Thanks for you comments Matt and Cameron.
As we said, there is the real possibility that people (e.g. the drivers of both vehicles) will end up in court over this. The footage shows high speed stock car racing along narrow country lanes.
As far as we're aware the police have not seen the video, but they will have no choice but to prosecute when they do.
Someone could easily have been killed or seriously injured by the actions of either/both drivers.
There will be a lot more to come on this story.
It will be interesting to see who, if anyone, is prosecuted. Would they dare prosecute only the householder? Will they be told to lay off Capita? Will they try to stonewall it and quietly bury the whole thing?
Wy the goon simply didn't tell the householder to bugger off and then sit tight, is a mystery. It says a lot about the sleazy mentality of those that Capita employs, I suppose.
If anyone doubts this is a TV Licensing van, then please note that the BBC and Crapita have been avidly reading this post all day. Together they've notched up more than an hour's reading time of this post alone.
Their latest visit details from just a few moments ago:
Referring URL:
(No referring link)
Host Name:
Browser: IE 9.0
IP Address: 195.27.53.211 Operating System: Win7
Location: Reading, United Kingdom
Resolution: 1366x768
Returning Visits: 13
Javascript: Enabled
Visit Length: 50 seconds
ISP: Net For Customer Capita
Thanks for you comment Ray.
The information we have, which is based on search warrant Deposition evidence sworn by Crapita court presenter Chris Christophorou (search name in blog for more info), is that detection relies on light fluctuations from a TV set. It really is Mickey Mouse "science".
The second part of the video, which shows the collisions, is already out there. If you search YouTube you'll find it. The reason we are reluctant to publish it here is because it is very incriminating towards the occupier as well as the van driving goon.
If they are using a laser microphone and camera, the chance that the evidence presented by Kebab Chris is faul;ty is high as the occupier may be listening to music or watching a DVD with no TV Signal into the property.
Peed off taxpayer
This is getting really stupid,chasing detector vans is not the way to go, nothing to hide is nothing to fear, i would have asked them if they wanted a cup of tea while they were watching my house bless em
As we are told that the van is registered to a private individual at a residential address, one wonders whether it actually belongs to the registered keeper, and if so whether it is insured for the purpose it is being used for.
It is one thing for a door knocking goon to use their private car (with appropriate insurance for business use) to travel to the area where they are door knocking, it is quite another to use a private vehicle as a base for directed surveillance.
Having seen what follows, I think that no-one comes out of this with any credit and that both drivers need an appointment before the local beak.
Thanks for your comment Anon.
I can answer your point: For all detector vans are registered to the relevant Crapita detection manager, the vans and assets inside remain the property of the BBC. The BBC has previously told us that in response to an FOIA request.
There needs to be some strong questions asked as to whether or not this was authorised directed surveillance under RIPA. As I understand it authorization has to come from senior BBC figures. Under RIPA they have to specify why directed surveillance is necessary under section 28(3), why it is proportionate etc.
Capita are likely to be in the proverbial over this, especially where RIPA is concerned. The driver of the Goonmobile was driving in a manner bordering on,if not, amounting to Dangerous Driving. Failing to stop after a collision is an offence under the Road Traffic Act. I am speaking as a retired policeman.
We agree, however, from where we're looking the car driver is equally in the wrong.
Will be interesting to see how this one turns out. We are keeping our powder dry for the moment!
The white van was unmarked so how is anyone to know who it is? All I can see is a white van which drives away when challenged. Burglars "caseing a joint??" I would have been tempted to call the police from the outset
Thanks for your comment Tameside Citizen.
We know that TV Licensing use this exact type of van (high-topped, plain white, VW Transporter) for detection.
We have seen several other identical vans, some with camera equipment pointing at the target property, speed away the moment anyone approaches. Please search our blog for further examples.
The appearance and behaviour of this van points squarely towards TV Licensing.
"The old-fangled detector vans were said to work by picking up the X-ray emissions from the Cathode-Ray Tube, so wouldn't have had that hugely undesirable side effect."
Late to this thread, but my old man was a comms engineer back in the 1970s and had some involvement with detector van technology. They didn't pick up x-rays (they were dangerous and suppressed by the lead laden glass which was the front of the CRT you viewed, but instead picked up the intermediate frequency of a TV receiver which could also reveal what channel you were watching (only one of three or maybe four in the day).
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