The tables have been turned on TV Licensing, with a man successfully suing the organisation to recover payments it had wrongly taken from his 82-year-old uncle.
Haydn Welch, 63, noticed that TV licence payments had been taken from his uncle's building society account, despite him being eligible for a free TV licence for the last seven years.
Mr Welch wrote to TV Licensing in an effort to recover the overpayments, which amounted to over £1,000. True to form, TV Licensing - which is always very quick to accept payments, but does everything it can to frustrate the refund process - refused his request.
According to TV Licensing, it did not keep records of customers' dates of birth, so had no way of knowing when a customer became eligible for a "free" over-75 TV licence.
That is yet another shameless, barefaced TV Licensing lie. A memorandum of understanding between the BBC and Department of Work and Pensions, previously disclosed to the TV Licensing Blog under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, confirms at paragraph 6 that the DWP supplies the follow information to the BBC in respect of the over-75 TV licence:
- The name, date of birth, address and national insurance number of any individual attaining the age of 74 years;
- Notification of the death of any individual aged 74 years or older.
As luck would have it, Mr Welch was able to persuade his uncle's building society that the Direct Debits had been taken in error, so it agreed to refund the payments.
Understandly annoyed at TV Licensing's lack of assistance, Mr Welch decided he would commence proceedings in the County Court to recover £350 interest on the money it had withheld.
He explained: "It is offensive for the BBC to hang on to this money. It is the principle. I asked them to repay eight per cent in interest on the £1,000 they had taken, but they told me the onus was on my uncle to tell them he did not require one.
"For them to keep an elderly man's money for seven years and then say it was his fault is really upsetting.
"They ignored the summons and subsequently a judgment was found in my favour. Then they ignored the judgment and failed to pay up. That's when I instructed bailiffs to recover my £350, which they did by phone.
"They prevaricated and ignored everything until ultimately bailiffs had to call them to recover the cash owed."
This is not the first time TV Licensing has fallen foul of the bailiffs.
In the case of our reader Phil, who successfully sued TV Licensing for the time and effort taken to deal with its noxious correspondence, it took the threat of bailiffs to finally spur payment as ordered by the court.
In that case, yet again, TV Licensing simply ignored the judgment in the hope it would disappear (although it claims never to have received the paperwork, which we consider another barefaced lie).
Curious that TV Licensing gets arsey with anyone that ignores its letters - which have no legal substance whatsoever - but repeatedly ignores court orders it receives in the post.
We positively encourage anyone in a similar situation to commence proceedings against TV Licensing in the County Court. Given TV Licensing's arrogance, it probably won't even bother responding to the claim, let alone defending it.
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