The TV licence evasion conviction of a woman with Down's Syndrome has been quashed.
It is quite astonishing that Capita TV Licensing, prosecuting on behalf of the BBC, considered there was any public interest in pursuing the prosecution in the first instance.
Over the last few months Evening Standard journalist Tristan Kirk has been exposing some of the many unjust prosecutions brought by TV Licensing.
In this particular case, the 57-year-old woman from Charlton, who lacks mental capacity, wasn't even in control of her own finances, but that didn't deter the pariahs at TV Licensing.
In common with every other case prosecuted by TV Licensing, the woman was interviewed under caution by a goon visiting her home. She disclosed to the goon that she was disabled and unaware that her Direct Debit payments had failed.
Instead of probing any further, TV Licensing took that as an admission of unlicensed television reception and proceeded to prosecute via the Single Justice Procedure (SJP).
An official from Greenwich Council, which is responsible for her guardianship, entered a guilty plea on her behalf and submitted mitigation to the court in relation to her mental health and finances. The Council confirmed that it should have dealt with the woman's affairs and had now made payment.
However, as TV licence evasion is a strict liability offence, the Magistrate dealing with the matter elected to convict her instead of referring the matter to a full court. The woman was handed a six month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £26 surcharge.
For its part, TV Licensing claims that it was unaware of the woman's extensive mitigation due to the fact that SJP correspondence is dealt with by the court.
As a result of the Standard's investigation, the woman's case was recently reopened at Willesden Magistrates' Court. This means that the court set aside her original conviction for reconsideration. The Capita TV Licensing prosecutor, known as a Court Presenter in TV Licensing parlance, declined to offer any evidence, so the case against the woman was dismissed.
In our opinion TV Licensing prosecutions via the SJP are systemically unfair. If the prosecutor remains unaware of a defendant's full mitigation, how can they possibly determine the public interest in pursuing the matter? Not that TV Licensing has ever considered the merits of pursuing individual prosecutions anyway.
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