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originally posted by: PhoenixOD
TV detector vans were first brought in as a PR stunt to frighten people into getting a TV license. Apparently they are normal vans with a few aerials some fancy decals but nothing inside!
‘Detector vans are a myth,’ the UKIP MEP Gerard Batten, a long-time campaigner against the licence fee, told me this week.
‘Prosecution [for not having a TV licence] depends on the accused being caught in the act of watching live broadcasts, or admitting to it. The non-existent threat of Detector Van evidence is just a means of getting suspects to incriminate themselves.’
Sceptics such as Batten point out there isn’t a single documented case in British legal history in which so-called ‘detection evidence’ from vans has been used to prosecute a licence fee evader.
This was, sheepishly, confirmed by the BBC in 2011 in response to a (hitherto unreported) Freedom of Information request.
Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk... gle-prosecution.html#ixzz3QvqUBKOk
Seems like Sam needs to do a little bit more research
Tv detector vans = extreme BS?
We also had a former Brit in the club who actually rode in the vans in the 1960's. He said that only about 1 in 5 vans actually had detection equipment, because it was too expensive to outfit every van. When he was in a van without equipment, he'd rely on a list of suspect addresses, park outside, twist the fake antenna around, then knock on the door.
He also said (back in 1975) that the actual detectors worked reasonably well, within about 150 feet. After that, not much to detect.
I used to work for TV licencing driving around in the detector van. It was full of fancy looking equipment for show only, NONE OF IT WORKED! They have a database of the houses without licences which they got by selecting streets and looking at who HAS got the licence. The remaining are targeted.
Leaflets will be dropped through those doors advising them to buy a licence as the TV detector van will be in the area in two weeks time. After driving around the area for days on end in a highly visible van with large antennae, leaflets are dropped again through the doors saying they have been picked up by the van and need to buy a licence or face prosecution. Most people pay.
Posted September 2005 (edited)
Dilzybhoy - I had a mate who drove about all day in a "detector" van. He was employed to drive around the schemes with the van with the big aerial and "TV detector Van" plastered on the side. It had nothing in it apart from his sleeping bag and some clothes ... I'm not making it up. I've seen inside it ... Twas in 2000 I was in this "detector" van.
forums.digitalspy.co.uk...
Originally Posted by mrblank
can someone clear this up once and for all.could they really track tvs or were they just a bluff to get people to buy tv licenses when they saw a van in their area
Yes they could - but even back when they existed there were only ever a very small number of real ones, most were just dummy vans which scared people in to buying a licence.
Back in the mid 70's I was taken inside one, and shown how it all worked - basically a lot of expensive professional radio and electronics gear, and two VERY highly skilled and qualified engineers to use it.
They were able to pick out individual TV's in the workshop, and tell me which channels they were on - and they were completely right on every one.
But as far as I'm aware there haven't been any for a number of decades now - far too expensive, and not cost effective. Much cheaper to send guys round knocking on doors.
And since you can use F#@K and S*^T in the video can we use it on the boards? Not that I really want to, it isn't very classy.
originally posted by: Ksihkehe
originally posted by: HotLoad
a reply to: TechUnique
Well excuse me for making a comment on an open forum......
You just joined, but based on what I'm reading you'll fit in just fine with a few of the folks here. Post a comment that is a dig at somebody, get asked what your beef is, complain more while acting as though it's fine for you to be insulting without repercussions.
Welcome to ATS.
15b.) Profanity: You will not use profanity in our forums on the Websites, and will neither Post with language or content that is obscene, sexually oriented, or sexually suggestive nor link to sites that contain such content. You will also not use common alternative spellings or net-speak alternative for profane words.
15k.) Video links/embeds: You will not embed or Post a link to a video without a reasonable description of its content and why it interests you, is germane to the topics discussed on the Websites or the topic of an existing thread should you post it in a reply to an existing thread.
I would definitely agree that at least some of them work. In my hometown, every time I changed my address, it would seem the T.V licensing people would know where I was before anyone else did. Way before I was even getting letters from anyone else I'd get a letter from the TV licensing people. It was as if they were stalking me, I was puzzled at how they could find me so quick and recognize that it was me at these addresses.
I know I should use multiple lines here....but one word
originally posted by: SkepticOverlord
a reply to: yuppa
Actually, I believe the concept of modern merchant/commercial banking began in Italy.
Fractional reserve banking was the logical evolution of that, and indeed, the Goldsmiths of London can be thanked for it.