Almost 600 Huddersfield TV licence dodgers caught in six months

Aug 5 2009 By Dave Himelfield

ABOUT 100 TV licence dodgers are being caught every month in Huddersfield, it was revealed today.

A new survey by TV Licensing revealed the continuing scale of the problem.

Figures released today reveal 214,000 people were caught watching TV without a licence across the UK during the first six months of this year.

Of this number, 590 evaders were caught using TV equipment in Huddersfield.

Across the UK, approximately 5,000 more licence fee evaders were caught in the first six months of 2009 compared to the same period last year.

TV Licensing still use mobile vans to detect dodgers but also rely heavily on computer databases to check on current licence situations for every address in the country.

The average evasion rate is currently just over 5%.

Also in the period 2008/2009 TV licence collection costs fell to 3.4% of total income collected from 3.6% the previous year.

Figures elsewhere in Yorkshire showed that the worst area was Hull, where 2,380 were caught.