BBC survey

[Tubey]

People go to jail for pirating pay to view content in just the same way as people go to jail for not paying the license fee.

The key takeaway being, if you don’t break the law you generally don’t end up in prison...

And my key takeaway is the licence fee shouldn't be covered by criminal law, and I've yet to see one compelling argument why it should be. It criminalises the poor and naive, the vast majority women, and clogs up the court system. It's blatantly wrong.

 

[zzr45]

Can I go to prison for not having a licence?​

No, you can’t go to prison for not having a TV licence. The court can only give you a fine for this. But if you don’t pay, the court can take further action to collect the fine, including sending you to prison as a last resort.

This will usually only happen if you’re refusing to pay and other methods of recovering the fine, such as enforcement agents (bailiffs) or deductions from your wages or benefits have failed.