Woman Appears in Court after Not Paying TV Licence
In the News
Annette Davis, 40, was said to have used a television receiver without a licence on or around July 29.
The defendant appeared before the bench at South Cumbria Magistrates' Court on Monday after pleading guilty to the offence.
She was given a conditional discharge for six months.
Davis, of Ferry Road in Barrow, was also told to pay a victim surcharge of £21 as well as court costs of £120 to be paid back at £20 per month.
Law is law it must be followed if you disagree with it you can protest about it but can't ignore it
Just an easy target. Taking someone to court for something you shouldn't need to have to pay. Bigger fish in the country getting away with much larger crimes.
There are freeview options,plus you can pay on a monthly basis,just don't get caught out.I agree it should be free for pensioners at least.
to be fair, if you watch live and dont have a licence its a risk you take.
i didnt like paying the licence and didnt even watch much live tv.
so i ditched live and canceled my licence and only use youtube and netflix now
i save loads of money and watch more interesting stuff lol
i do dissagree we shoudnt be taken to court ok i understand we need to pay for tv liicence but not everyone can afford it
I honestly don't understand why there is access to it if you don't pay it. Someone else visiting your home could turn it on accidentally or someone who thinks someone has it uses it. I don't see Disney channel or Sports channel giving access if not paid. Simple BBC can do that. We have TV licence but barely does it get used these days with all the options available on Netflix and Sky. BBC needs to move on with the time. Its not the only way to get news or the most important channel.
Very good point,should be subscription based.I begrudge paying it,we have prime&netflix,so we rarely watch BBC tv now,if anything it's recorded or bbc iplayer.Mainly news,I don't watch any other live tv as adverts drive me insane ;) x
nina090976 Licence required for i player TV Licensing
You need a TV Licence to download or watch BBC programmes on iPlayer – live, catch up or on demand. This applies to any device and provider you use, including: Freeview, Freesat or YouView. Sky, Virgin Media or BT TV.
Do I need a TV Licence for on demand services? - TV ...https://www.tvlicensing.co.uk › faqs › FA
jongerry yes I have a licence,just seems a lot for the odd programme I watch,when most will end up on Netflix eventually,hence why I said I begrudge paying it x
wow, she was targeted. Just a token case to prove they do prosecute. A very good point already raised that you might not use it but someone else could put it on when you aren't there etc, and you could get done when it wasn't you who watched the tv. They really need to sort this tv license out. Either you pay like you do netflix or you don't have access. I never missed cancelling mine and even though I have access to live tv whilst at my parents, I've only watched a few shows in 3 months.
Hi, I feel that the BBC are so complacent. I honestly do not know how they justify the fee. The sooner it becomes subscription based the better. A lot of people are paying for netflix, prime etc to have something decent to watch and I for one would love not to have to pay so much to the BBC.
Prime Video is kinda meh, at least for me. The shows exclusive to Prime Video that I want to watch are country-locked which makes it even harder and more specific.
No wonder people have to resort to piracy when the service they pay for refuses to provide the content. I mean, I know it was there before (series from Spain, e.g. El Pueblo & La Que Se Avecina), but it's not anymore.
And now Netflix in U.K. no longer allowed free trials, maybe it's just temporary. Perhaps folks abused the free trial.
In closing, Prime Video still has a ton of content for one to watch, but someone tends to be left out and that's me this time.
PhilipMarc Hi, I couldn't agree more and that's so true about people resorting to piracy. I don't blame them at all. I hadn't realised about Netflix no longer offering a free trials. It probably was open to abuse. Hopefully changes will be made to prime video to make it more interesting and accessible to everyone 
I don't have a tv license but do so legally based on their terms of not watching live programs or any content from the BBC at home. I only get to watch BBC stuff at other people's houses. However the term 'freeview' implies a free service which again is disgusting, it should be extortionview not freeview. The idea that somehow a tv should be licensed is ridiculous and clearly it is to pay for BBC services so surely the use of the word freeview is incorrect. When the BBC becomes a subscription service and is not part of the freeview service then it has the right be called freeview. Clearly Annette Davis took a risk and lost and I'm not going to defend her actions but the real crime is the tv license.
I pay my licence but I cannot remember when I watched TV last time. My son plays on his xbox and I watch Netflix prime on my iPad but still have to pay licence fees. How comes its fair
Just disconnect your aerial and/or satellite dish and cancel your tv license. It doesn't sound like you need it, I've sure you can put that £150 to better use. If you want to watch anything on itv, ch4 or ch5 watch it on catchup services.
Anam cancel you license and fill out the forms online to advise you no longer need a license. They can’t send anyone round to check and you don’t have to let anyone in. The most they can do is send round a salesman to try and sell you a new license, which you refuse 
AliceBell64468 I will do that I am paying too much for nothing and it's really frustrating now for me.
We should take BBC and gov to the court for this unreasonable fees. Most of people I know dont even watch TV channels but you need pay licence even if you watch YouTube online.
Youtube is a bit confusing, basically it doesn't require a tv license unless you watch live commercial channels through it. I tried to clarify if it was ok to watch live amateur broadcasts and it was a bit of a grey area but they said there was no risk of prosecution doing so. Sometimes it seems like the modern world makes it confusing for the authorities to work out this TV license nonsense and they are a bit confused themselves.
Gotta be kidding. Criminals stab and throw acid at people and never get caught, but a license meant to rip off people gets you in court.
She probably didn’t fill out the required forms online to say you don’t need a license. Anyone can fill out these forms even if you do have access to live TV. I think everyone should fill out the forms and stop paying, they cannot send anyone round to check.. Why should we pay for the BBC staff luxuries on top of their extortionate wages.
I'm not directly replying to a specific comment but where do people get the idea this is a "token case?" Approximately 180,000 people a year are prosecuted for not having a TV licence. That's about 500 a day.
nina090976 That figure was from two sources 2013 and 2017 it might be even more now since the BBC churlishly decided that watching their own programmes on catch up required a licence (catching the unwary out too) here's some proof for any doubters.https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/tv-licence-offences-make-up-more-than-a-tenth-of-all-court-cases-in-the-uk-8778569.html I did know that Capita who do the enforcement for the BBC arranged for special courts to deal with the prosecutions.
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