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Tuesday 28 February 2012

Who authorises BBC covert surveillance?

Here is the source document it is a big PDF file
Office of Surveillance Commissioners - Inspection Report


"BBC is undertaking a very specific form of covert surveillance."

Here's the authorisation process as I understand it from reading that report:

Because of human rights concerns, the BBC's use of surveillance is subject to the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

Before surveillance is permitted to be executed on an address these steps must be followed:
1. First an applicant must make a written application requesting authorisation for survellance of that specific address, stating the reasons why that address is targeted. 
2. The application is then evaluated by a gatekeeper.
3. The application is then evaluated by one of the two authorising officers.
4. Only then can the surveillance (for example detector van or handheld device) be executed by detection operatives.

Who is the applicant? One of the tv licence enforcement officers (or whatever they are called) i.e. a Capita employee.

Who is the gatekeeper? One specific high-up Capita employee whose name is redacted from the report.

Who are the two authorising officers? Two specific high-up Capita employees named in the report who are granted this power under RIPA regulations.

Who executes the surveillance? Capita employees.

I have recently received several written threats of surveillance, but now I can rest easy, knowing that the written application, to spy on my family, will never get through that strict and independent authorisation process.

Where's the sarcasm smiley when I need it?


Two-faced BBC

The BBC has threatened me with enforcement visits, detection visits, court summons, fine, court costs, plus they have fabricated out of thin air a "no licence needed" statement which I never made.

Most worrying of all, is that the BBC have already falsified all the ingredients they would need to fraudulently apply for a search warrant.

One thing is for certain though - every 3 months they will happily continue to take £37.62 out of my bank account.

What is that for, you may well ask?
A charitable contribution to thank them for the pleasant tone of their letters perhaps?

Actually it's payment for our valid TV licence.
Yes we have one, we always reliably pay, we have done for many years, we are amongst the BBC's very best customers.


Monday 27 February 2012

BBC ‘defectives’ plague couple

"have always had a television licence."
"bombarded with warning letters"
"six years"
"70 documents, including 12 law-enforcement letters"
"my integrity is being challenged"
"a lot of taxpayers’ money is being wasted"
"an investigation will be taking place and they risk being taken to court"

Click here for the full Lynn News report










Thursday 23 February 2012

Blame it on the bizarre!

SPOOF

Blame it on the bizarre!

TV Licensing has today revealed a some of the implausibly feeble excuses the BBC has given when questioned about their harassment of honest TV Licence holders. And it’s full of tall tales. From the sublime to the ridiculous, the BBC has been particularly inventive in their attempt to excuse their threats against innocent paying customers.
Some of the more bizarre excuses given by the BBC included:
  • "Errors will happen"
  • "We accidentally had the customer's address duplicated in our database"
  • "We had a number (more than 2) of slight variations of the customer's address in our database"
  • "We harassed the customer for six years because we accidentally got the customer's first initial wrong"
While shifting the blame on to incompetent duplicate (or triplicate or quadruple) database entries, customers faced a raft of far more inventive tales, telling one customer "when you paid us you selected the 'new license' option on our website so it's your fault" or fobbing off another customer with "we mistakenly took the money twice from your account".
Despite the innovative excuses given by the BBC, the BBC has done absolutely nothing to fix their own incompetence and continues the practice undeterred.
Jow Shan, TV Licensing spokesperson, said:
“No matter how creative these BBC excuses, some people watching TV with a valid licence will continue to receive threats from the BBC of detector vans, court summons and a fine of up to £1,000. We do recognise that some people may be struggling to understand why they get harassed when they have always paid faithfully, and if this is the case, we would urge them to not bother contacting the BBC, as the BBC reserve the right to continue threatening them regardless.
Whilst we do have a successful track record in complete incompetence at running database systems, we would always rather that someone pay for their licence twice rather than just once.
For further excuses, please contact the TV Licensing Press Office.

This SPOOF was inspired by This BBC Webpage

Tuesday 21 February 2012

BBC harass Lincoln TV Licence holder for 6 years

Click here to read the "This Is Lincolnshire" report

This Lincolnshire man always faithfully paid his TV licence.

And what does the BBC give him in return?
Six years of threats and insults

BBC threaten honest Ayrshire man for 14 months


 Click here to read the full Ayrshire Post article

"tv licensing snoops are making life a misery for a man who faithfully pays by direct debit"
"The letters started 14 months ago"
"a barrage of threatening letters"
“I’m absolutely livid about this”

BBC threaten honest Chichester customer

"x xxxxx of Chichester has been told that inspectors might appear on his doorstep at any time with a warrant to search his premises for an illegal TV because he does not have a licence. The fact that he has paid handsomely for a licence every year and has spent the past three months trying to prove it has not put these people off. They are not interested in facts"
Click here to read the full Guardian article