Disabled mum’s ‘terrifying’ prosecution over non-payment of TV licence

Published

7 months ago

October 3, 2024

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“I still have panic attacks now.”

Claire (not her real name), a disabled mum in her 30s, never imagined she’d ever face criminal prosecution. But earlier this year, that’s what happened – for non-payment of her TV licence.

The stress took its toll on her mental and physical health.

“I don’t think I’m a criminal,” she says. “I have two kids I take to school every day, I try and pay my bills… I had to get anxiety tablets because I couldn’t sleep.”

As the BBC looks to broker a new funding deal with the government in the next three years, critics of the current licence fee model argue it is hard to justify how non-payment is still seen as serious enough to merit criminal prosecution.

The fee is currently a flat rate of £169.50 – poorest households pay as much as the richest.

Claire, who was fined £750 for non-payment, spoke to us anonymously about her experience of dealing with the fast-track system of processing cases.

The whole process, she says, was “terrifying”. At the time the enforcement officer knocked on her door, her partner had recently been jailed for domestic violence. He had previously taken control of her finances.

“All my money was in his account and I wasn’t getting access… from what I was aware he was paying the bills but it turned out he wasn’t,” she says.

The enforcement officer said he understood, Claire says. But a week later she received a letter to say she was going to be prosecuted.

Claire was told she would need paperwork to prove her situation, but didn’t have the money to send off for it. With 21 days to respond she felt she had to plead guilty or the costs might escalate.

“All you think is, ‘If I don’t pay this are they going to put me in prison?’.”

The licence fee has always been the BBC’s bread and butter – but given 500,000 households cancelled last year, there are questions over its sustainability. Other models such as Netflix, for example, successfully exist without needing the threat of prosecution.

Can the BBC still justify it?

Mary Marvel, head of policy at access-to-justice charity Law For Life, says “innocent people are feeling forced to plead otherwise” so their fine is reduced.

Under the Conservative government, various reviews looked into the pros and cons of decriminalising non-payment – ultimately concluding to keep the system as it is for now. Previously, the BBC said switching to a civil system would cost more than £1bn and lead to major cuts.

The Times newspaper recently claimed the current Labour government intends to scrap prosecutions over concerns women are being unfairly penalised. However, Sky News understands this is not the case.

Ahead of the BBC’s next charter review, all the government has officially said is that it isn’t ruling out making changes – and there will be consultation before making any decisions.

Almost three-quarters of 2023 prosecutions were women

Currently, the vast majority of prosecutions are dealt with via a system called the single justice procedure – a fast-track for relatively straightforward cases designed to fix the backlog of court delays.

Cases are processed by a single magistrate in private, and letters from defendants often go unread by prosecutors if an individual pleads guilty.

Almost 31,000 people were prosecuted for non-payment of the TV licence last year. Just over 73% were women.

Why the disparity? In 2023, a BBC review found that more than 60% of single-adult households are female, compared with less than 40% male. The review also found behavioural differences: women are more likely to be at home; more likely to open the door; and more likely to be the point of contact for bills and domestic admin.

Magistrates Association chief executive Tom Franklin says the TV Licensing authority should review pleas and mitigations before cases come before magistrates, giving an opportunity for them to be withdrawn if not in the public interest – “particularly for the most vulnerable in society”.

The government says the decision to prosecute “sits with TV Licensing”, but it is “keeping under review” its oversight and regulation of organisations using the single justice procedure.

A TV Licensing spokesperson said the authority would contact Claire and review the prosecution.

“We have the ability to overturn a conviction when provided with evidence that it was not in the public interest,” they said.

Significant reasons could include domestic violence, and mental and physical ill-health, the spokesperson said, adding that prosecution is always a “last resort”.

For now, Claire is incrementally using universal credit to pay back a fine she arguably shouldn’t have been prosecuted for in the first place.

UK

Nazi flags, patient ‘sexually assaulted’, ‘dog poo left at whistleblower’s home’: Sky News investigates UK’s ‘worst ambulance service’

Published

6 hours ago

April 28, 2025

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Nazi flags, patient 'sexually assaulted', 'dog poo left at whistleblower's home': Sky News investigates UK's 'worst ambulance service'

A grandmother who claims she was sexually assaulted by a private paramedic on the way to hospital has told Sky News she has been failed by the ambulance service.

Warning: This article contains references to sexual abuse and suicide

It comes as a staff survey of the same service – the South East Coast Ambulance Service (SECAmb) – heard damning claims of a culture of discrimination and bullying; with allegations of Nazi flags on team video calls and a “boy’s club” culture where whistleblowers are punished. 

It’s been more than a year since a Sky News investigation first heard of a culture of rampant sexual harassment and abuse in ambulance services.

These issues have existed for decades right across the country.

But now the GMB union, which represents ambulance workers, is calling on the chief executive of SECAmb, Simon Weldon, to resign.

It’s after a survey of workers heard high instances of inappropriate behaviour and bullying; with a huge fear of speaking out.

It’s led the GMB to call for an independent investigation, with one representative branding the ambulance trust “the worst in the country”.

The trust told us it is committed to working with unions for positive change.

‘I just lay there, terrified’

Juliette, 65, has spent four years trying to get her local ambulance trust to listen. In 2021, she accused a private paramedic working with SECAmb of sexually assaulting her.

Hit by a car while cycling through Surrey, she remembers lying on the stretcher in agony, afraid to move in case she was paralysed. Two paramedics carried out assessments for around 90 minutes before driving her to hospital.

But as soon as she was alone in the back with just one of them, she claims the male paramedic suddenly told her he wanted to “check her hips”.

“There was no asking, no consent,” she says. And instead of touching her hips, she claims he sexually assaulted her.

“With his left hand, he opened my shorts up – and put his right hand into my cycling shorts.

“Between my legs.”

She doesn’t want to go into the details, but she says she temporarily froze, powerless and terrified of what he might do. All the while he stared down into her eyes and said nothing.

“I felt so uncomfortable. Shamed, frightened, shocked. I didn’t want it to continue.”

She said her brain eventually “snapped into place” and she moved her legs. She claims he then removed his hand, and sat behind her head in silence for the rest of the journey.

“I just lay there – terrified,” she whispers. 

She reported it to the police the following day, but with no CCTV in the ambulance, it was her word against his. With no hope of a successful prosecution, the Met Police dropped the case.

Then she turned her attention to the ambulance service, hopeful it would act.

We’ve seen correspondence between Juliette’s lawyers and SECAmb, which promised to respond to the formal complaint within 25 days. That was repeatedly delayed for several months.

“It was about seven months after the accident. They still hadn’t acknowledged anything to do with the sexual assault,” she recalls.

“They hadn’t answered any questions.” 

Eventually, they effectively said the assault hadn’t happened; claiming that Juliette herself had started to remove her cycling shorts, and that “consent was given” for an examination after she complained of a pain in her leg.

She unequivocally denies every detail of this account.

She says it left her feeling “insulted, betrayed and humiliated”.

Why – she asks – would somebody think she had “wasted all this time”.

“It’s too late for me,” she adds, but she is making a stand to help others avoid the same trauma.

Culture of discrimination, harassment and bullying

The GMB represents a large number of the 4,000 SECAmb staff, and recently carried out a survey of their members about their experiences of working life.

From the nearly 900 responses, the union claims they identified a culture of discrimination towards women staff members with sexual harassment, bullying, and a general “boys’ club” culture.

Of those surveyed, 25.6% had experienced bullying and 26% had witnessed inappropriate conduct. Racism was witnessed by 16% and sexual harassment by 17.2%.

What’s more, 80% didn’t feel confident the trust would support them if they flagged concerning behaviour.

‘He’s always been into Nazi stuff’

Ambulance worker Amelia (not her real name) told Sky News she finally blew the whistle on inappropriate behaviour a few years ago after she joined a video call with colleagues to discuss staffing levels.

One of the managers joined them from home. To Amelia’s shock, he appeared on their office screen with a large red, white and black Nazi swastika flag prominently behind him.

On his desk was a framed photo of Adolf Hitler, next to what she says looked like a young woman at graduation. On the bookshelves sat a red swastika armband and what she was later told was a World War Two grenade.

She was horrified.

“I kept looking around the room thinking, ‘why is no one saying anything?’… When I spoke to people afterwards they said: ‘Oh yeah… he’s always been into Nazi stuff.”

At first, she blew the whistle anonymously, but was told she’d have to name herself and put in a formal grievance for it to be investigated.

A report seen by Sky News found the manager’s “inappropriate behaviour” should have been challenged, but he still works for SECAmb.

Amelia claims she was isolated by her colleagues, frozen out of meetings and uninvited to team events, saying “it killed my career”.

An independent report found there wasn’t enough evidence to prove that she had been deliberately excluded.

At one point the police were involved, then days later, she says, “I had bags of dog faeces on my doorstep. That went on for a few days, I felt like a prisoner in my own home”.

“Whenever I heard sirens, I got palpitations. I was terrified of who would be in that ambulance.”

‘They become the problem’

When people like Amelia speak out “they become the problem”, says Lib Whitfield, a senior GMB organiser.

Lib started working with the trust eight years ago, after an independent report was published, highlighting behaviours similar to those referenced in this article.

The culture is now the “worst it’s ever been”, says Lib, and she believes it’s the “worst in the country”.

“I am receiving calls every single day from members who are suicidal,” she adds.

Lib says the union has now written to the health secretary, Wes Streeting, with three demands.

“Firstly, we need a full independent investigation into the culture of SECAmb that results in actions and not just words,” she says.

“Secondly, we are calling for the resignation of the current chief executive who has overseen this getting worse.

“And thirdly, we are calling for an interim chief executive to be appointed who is external to SECAmb and who can have external reporting to ensure they are not corrupted.”

We took these allegations to the ambulance trust, which wanted to point out that the alleged events happened before Mr Weldon took over as chief executive.

It also said it had issues with the way the anonymous survey was conducted.

A spokesperson said in a statement: “We continue to work hard to make SECAmb a safe organisation for all of our people and are committed to drive real change.

“The historic cases highlighted were thoroughly investigated, including through independent external reviews, and we firmly believe these cases do not reflect the views of the majority of our people on how it feels to work at SECAmb currently.

“We continue to engage openly with the whole trust about the further improvements we want to make and about the changes needed for the ambulance sector as whole.

“We remain absolutely committed to working with our unions to achieve this, although this will only happen with constructive collaboration on all sides.”

Health Secretary Wes Streeting did not respond to our request for an interview, but in a statement a Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This is an extremely concerning report and we are looking closely at it. Sexual harassment or abuse within the NHS is completely unacceptable and must be dealt with appropriately.”

Anyone feeling emotionally distressed or suicidal can call Samaritans for help on 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org in the UK. In the US, call the Samaritans branch in your area or 1 (800) 273-TALK.

UK

Liverpool win Premier League title to equal Man Utd’s record

Published

15 hours ago

April 27, 2025

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Liverpool win Premier League title to equal Man Utd's record

Liverpool have won the Premier League title after a 5-1 victory over Tottenham at Anfield.

Arne Slot’s men did it in impressive style, turning over Spurs in a convincing win.

It was a rocky start for the Reds after Dominic Solanke put the north London side ahead.

However, fortunes quickly changed in the first half as Liverpool scored three times without a response.

In the second half, it took until the 63rd minute for Mohamed Salah to make it 4-1 before a fifth followed.

The Reds have won the title in manager Arne Slot’s first season in charge, and move level with fierce rivals Manchester United on 20 league championships.

But it makes them arguably the most successful English club ever as they have won more European Cup or Champions League titles.

Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk told Sky Sports after the final whistle: “It’s special and it’s something that we don’t take for granted. It’s amazing.

“A lot of emotions before the game, during the whole week, but we got the job done and we (are) truly deserved champions of England. (Liverpool is) the most beautiful club in the world and I think we deserve all of this. Let’s enjoy the next couple of weeks and let it sink in.”

Slot took over last summer from Jurgen Klopp, who guided them to their previous and maiden Premier League title triumph in 2020, when the COVID-19 lockdown saw matches played behind closed doors.

He is the first Dutch manager to win the Premier League and the fifth man to do so in a debut campaign after Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Manuel Pellegrini, and Antonio Conte.

Speaking to Sky Sports he said: “They [the players] did an outstanding job today. The main job was to win. Everyone said we had got it already. But we had to make sure and we got over the line.”

Several players, including Alisson Becker, Trent Alexander-Arnold, Virgil van Dijk, and Mohamed Salah, played leading roles in both the 2025 and 2020 campaigns.

Van Dijk and Salah recently signed new contracts extending their careers at the club.

Liverpool will have to wait until the final game of the season – at home to Crystal Palace on 25 May – to be presented with the Premier League trophy.

It will be the first time the club’s fans will have seen their side lift the top-flight title in person since 1990.

This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly.

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UK

Protesters throw powder on Tower Bridge during London Marathon

Published

21 hours ago

April 27, 2025

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Protesters throw powder on Tower Bridge during London Marathon

Two pro-Palestinian demonstrators have thrown red powder on Tower Bridge – just moments before leading runners in the London Marathon went past.

The protesters were arrested on suspicion of causing a public nuisance and remain in custody, said the Metropolitan Police.

A video shared by Youth Demand, which is calling for a trade embargo on Israel, shows two people jumping over a barrier that separates spectators from the race course.

The pair, wearing t-shirts that say “Youth Demand: Stop Arming Israel”, are then seen standing in the middle of the road on the bridge.

They throw red powder in the air as an official marathon car goes past displaying the race time.

A motorbike with a cameraman on board continues along the route, while a second motorbike stops and one of the riders gets off and pushes the pair out of the way, just before the men’s elite runners pass.

Several police officers then jump over the barrier and detain the pair, the footage shows.

There appeared to be no impact on the marathon.

More than 56,000 participants were expected to take part in the 26.2-mile race through the capital.

Sabastian Sawe of Kenya won the men’s elite race in a time of two hours, two minutes and 27 seconds, while Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa shattered the women’s-only world record in two hours, 15 minutes and 50 seconds.

Assefa beat the previous best of two hours, 16 minutes and 16 seconds set last year in London by Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir.

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement: “At around 10.38am, two protesters from Youth Demand jumped over barriers at Tower Bridge and threw red paint on to the road.

“Marathon event staff intervened to remove the protesters from the path of the men’s elite race which was able to pass unobstructed.”

The force added that they were “quickly supported by police officers who arrested the protesters on suspicion of causing a public nuisance”.

The Met said the paint “appeared to be chalk-based” and was not expected to “present a hazard to runners yet to pass this point”.