A woman with Down’s Syndrome has been handed a criminal conviction for not paying the TV Licence, despite having no control over her own finances.
The 57-year-old from Charlton is one of dozens of Londoners taken to court by TV Licensing over unpaid bills in recent weeks, in prosecutions dealt with behind-closed-doors in a controversial fast-track court system.
Her old TV Licence expired in the summer, and when she was quizzed on the doorstep in August the woman told an agent she is disabled, she said she was currently watching BBC1, and was unaware that her Licensing bill had not been paid.
When the case reached court this month, an official from Greenwich Council entered a guilty plea on the woman's behalf and revealed the woman has learning difficulties and Down’s Syndrome.
“Her finances are managed by the Financial Protection and Appointee Team at Royal Borough of Greenwich”, wrote the official. “We have a court order confirming this.
“(Her) TV licence has always been paid by direct debit and I have just seen it expired in May 2023, but it looks like the direct debits have not continued for June 23 onwards which we were not aware of.
“I have just applied online to set up a new direct debit and her first payment of £123 comes out in Jan 2024, then she will be paying £41 a month after that.
“Please contact myself if you wish to discuss this further.”
The prosecution was brought through the Single Justice Procedure, a courts system where thousands of people each week are convicted and sentenced behind closed doors based solely on written evidence.
Earlier this month, an Evening Standard investigation exposed a major flaw in the Single Justice Procedure: that prosecutors routinely do not see letters of mitigation - often including important information about the public interest of a case - thanks to the fast-track way the system operates.
TV Licensing has confirmed it did not see the Greenwich Council letter before the woman was sentenced.
A magistrate accepted the guilty plea entered on her behalf and opted not to refer the case to a full open court hearing.
The woman - who the Evening Standard has chosen not to identify – was convicted and given a six-month conditional discharge, and told to pay a £26 victim surcharge.
A spokesperson for TV Licensing said it is now “examining the specific circumstances of this case, including all contact with local authority involved.”
The vast majority of TV Licensing prosecutions are conducted through the Single Justice Procedure.
In other recent cases, a 41-year-old man from Eltham in south east London wrote to the court after he was charged with not paying for the TV Licence.
“The previous licence was in my wife’s name…who is disabled and I am a carer for”, he wrote.
“The direct debit has been cancelled and I was unaware of this.
“We called the TV Licence helpline to set up a new direct debit which they advised to do so in my name. We was told Direct Debit was not available and they would send a payment card. This never arrived.
“The next we heard anything was when the representative visited out home and the TV Licence was set up. It is still in place now and a direct debit in my own name is active.”
He added that his wife is unwell, medicated for anxiety, and “does not cope well with financial issues”.
After pleading guilty, he was given a conditional discharge with £80 of costs and a £26 victim surcharge to pay.
Due to the fast-track nature of the Single Justice Procedure, this letter would not have been seen by prosecutors prior to sentencing.
Another letter was submitted by a mother-of-three from Woolwich who said she has been “critically sick with Covid” since July, and was questioned on the doorstep in November - shortly after being discharged from hospital.
She pleaded guilty, but told the court she has now paid for a TV Licence until October 2024. She was convicted and fined £147, plus £120 costs and a £59 victim surcharge.
In another case, a 43-year-old woman from Walthamstow was ordered to pay £76 after she was convicted of not paying her TV Licence.
“I have been finding my bills hard with law income and not working due to disability”, she said, after revealing her diagnoses of Crohn’s disease and multiple sclerosis.
And a 52-year-old man from Eltham was fined £81 plus £120 costs and a £32 victim surcharge for not paying the TV Licence when he was found watching 5 Star on Freeview.
He told TV Licensing and the court he had recently spent two months in a coma due to a head injury, he suffers from epilepsy and diabetes, and struggles with memory difficulties.
The TV Licensing officer told the court in written evidence that the man’s TV had been checked and tested - a statement that was contested by the man in his mitigation letter who said his TV was not working on the day of the inspection.
The magistrate opted to proceed to sentence rather than adjourn the case for a further hearing when both prosecutor and defendant could be present.
TV Licensing says it makes efforts to avoid prosecution in all cases, writing multiple times to try to make contact with people who have not paid their bills, and offering out of court settlements in many cases.
It says letters of mitigation from defendants are not reviewed by prosecutors but are taken into consideration by magistrates when they pass sentence.
