Cricket legend Ian Botham has hit out at the BBC's army of debt collectors, who he accuses of "terrorising" over-75s into paying the TV licence fee.
Writing in the Telegraph (paywall), the former England all-rounder turned Peer of the Realm, said he had received over 2,000 emails from elderly people and their carers terrified of the prospect of bailiffs at the door or a criminal record.
Botham shares some of the harrowing correspondence he has received from concerned pensioners.
One email read: "My wife and I are disabled pensioners. To date we have had the inspectors at our front door three times in as many months demanding why we don't have a licence."
Another said: "My 90-year-old mother-in-law has had a stroke and yet we have had reams of this stuff through her letter box. This is frightening in the extreme."
Illustrating the unfairness of the rules, a concerned relative said: "I care for my mum who is 100 years old, extremely frail and registered blind. Her pleasures are so small, and revolve exclusively around listening to the TV, where she can hear programmes she remembers from when she was sighted."
Another said: "My sister is 89 and suffers from dementia. She does not know what she is watching on TV; it is just images being watched by someone with no understanding of what is happening. Because she is not on any benefits she is made to pay for her viewing."
Some older folk are resigned to the fact that are now in the cross hairs of the BBC's revenue generation bullies - most notably TV Licensing operations contractor, Capita Business Services Ltd.
"I am receiving increasingly threatening letters from the BBC", said an elderly man angered at the Corporation's aggressive approach.
"I suppose the next step is a visit from the BBC 'heavy mob' demanding payment.
"Right now I feel like resisting and if necessary go to prison. At least I would get free TV on the inside!"
Botham says that members of the pro-BBC lobby will attempt to shift the blame for axing the universal over-75 TV licence concession back on the Government.
However, he rightly recalls that Tony Hall, BBC Director General at the time, heralded the national broadcaster's financial settlement with the Government as "a good one".
He invites any over-75 being threatened by TV Licensing to get in touch by email: lord.botham (at) gmail (dot) com.
1 comment:
Has anyone explained to him that this is the same abusive behaviour they have been using on every non licence holder for 26 years to my personal knowledge. I'm looking to get the courts here in Swindon to investigate my 26 years worth of complaints against TV Licensing and the BBC. Help from Lord Botham, and other subscribers would be very welcome. It's all very well the occasional judgement against Capita and BBC, but until the damages and fines start to approach the £60million each mark (approx. what BBC pay Capita per year) they have no reason to change. When the judgement against them reaches the point where every shareholder is seeing substantial loss of dividend, then some action might get taken. The corrupt shower in the House of Commons are not going to be any use, after all they permitted the new charter to go ahead.
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