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Are TV detector vans just a cunning con trick? For decades it's been claimed they trap licence cheats. In fact, they've never led to a single prosecution
Detector Vans were heavily promoted by the BBC, who claimed they can detect working TV sets It has even been claimed they are almost entirely ineffective BBC has avoided spelling out how many detector vans there are But they have never led to a single person being punished
By Guy Adams PUBLISHED: 00:49 GMT, 5 October 2013 | UPDATED: 00:50 GMT, 5 October 2013

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Under the cover of darkness, a light blue van with two huge rotating aerials fixed to its roof drives slowly down a residential street. A camera reveals that in the back, twiddling a set of controls that might have been pinched from a Thunderbirds spaceship, sits a middle-aged man wearing a tweed jacket and flamboyant moustache. Yes! he declares, peering conspiratorially through a pair of wire-rimmed spectacles. Theres a TV set on at No5. Its in the front room. And theyre watching...Columbo!

Smoke and mirrors: There is no evidence that a TV detector van has ever worked

The camera pans out to show a team of sinister looking heavies leaping from the van. If you dont have a TV licence, it wont take us long to find you, a narrator informs viewers. Dont get a fine. Get a licence! This famous 20-second advert aired on the BBC hundreds of times during the Seventies, becoming as embedded in contemporary culture as parka jackets, sideburns and the Bay City Rollers. Terrified by its depiction of vans that could see through living room walls, a generation of Britons was cowed into lining up at the Post Office to buy a TV licence. So far, so effective; yet conspiracy theorists have long maintained that the menacing TV commercial is actually a cynical and deeply misleading piece of government propaganda. The ubiquitous TV detector van that it portrays doesnt really exist, they claim. Indeed, the supposedly commonplace vehicles have never been widely used on Britains streets. Many believe they were paraded across TV screens and are still used in press releases as part of a dishonest PR stunt. The chance of one driving down your street is almost nil, they allege.

Historic: The Television Detection Van was first introduced in 1952

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 isnt 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.

Advances: The vans upgraded many times, but it is claimed their equipment has always been ineffective

Sceptics also wonder why the BBC has always refused to either say how many of the vehicles it owns, or

to answer questions about how they work, who operates them, and where they are used. Instead, the Corporations spokesmen have for decades told reporters that revealing such information might be useful to people trying to evade the licence fee. All of which has only added to the weight of doubt regarding the very existence of the vans. This week the subject was thrown into the news following the leak of an internal BBC memo. The 18-page document, obtained by the Radio Times, laid bare in great detail the Corporations on-going efforts to target unlicensed viewers, more and more of whom are being pursued for evasion because they dont realise you need a licence to watch live TV on smartphones or tablets. It revealed, for example, there are currently 334 enforcement officers working in the UK, an increase of 20 per cent on last year.

On patrol: Former drivers have said the vans would go out solely to be seen, and would often not have their equipment switched on

Meanwhile, roughly 5.8 per cent of households evade the 145.50 licence fee, up from 5.2 per cent in 2012. Yet nowhere in this detailed and supposedly authoritative document was there a single mention of the fabled TV detector vans, or of how they may be catching cheats. The revelation was seized upon by media commentators. One national newspaper reported it under the headline: TV Detector vans: a work of fiction? In response, the BBC insisted the vans do exist but refused to answer further questions. So what has been going on? This week, more than 60 years after TV detector vans were first unveiled, I managed to establish the truth behind the use of these controversial surveillance vehicles. The key to the mystery lay not with the BBC, but in the archives of the Post Office Vehicle Club (POVC), an organisation of 200 enthusiasts devoted to cars, vans and lorries owned by the postal service. Christopher Hogan, editor of the clubs newsletter, explained that, until 2002, the Royal Mail was in charge of TV licence collection and enforcement. And, he told me: We know details about every vehicle it used, including their serial number, going back to

1906. The club therefore has records of every single TV detector van that was in operation between 1952, when they were first rolled-out, to 2002, when the Royal Mail lost the contract for licence enforcement. These confirm some vehicles existed but there have never been more than 20 or so at any one time. This appears to confirm suspicions that detector vans always were and almost certainly still are largely a propaganda tool. Their story begins in the Fifties, when the Post Office announced, with some fanfare, it had acquired a fleet of converted Hillman Minx and Morris Oxford estate cars, which had vast triangular aerials attached to their roofs. In the event, however, the POVC records reveal that only nine of these were ever in service. The early Sixties saw another fleet of Commer detector vans unveiled with great fanfare. But, again, archives show that only 11 of these were used at any one time. A few years later, another ten Commers were introduced, bringing the total number of detector vans to 21. This quantity was maintained throughout the Seventies, Eighties (when first Dodge and then Leyland supplied new vans) and Nineties, when eventually Ford Transits were introduced. It continued until 2002, when licence enforcement was handed to the outsourcing firm Capita. Given that roughly 4,000 people are prosecuted for licence fee evasion every week, the usefulness of detector vans, in tracking down offenders, is highly debatable. Indeed, TV licensing catches all but a tiny minority of cheats by the very low-tech technique of sending inspectors to knock on their doors. Although enforcement officers have no official powers of entry, they are trained in either talking their way across the threshold, or tricking homeowners into confessing they have been watching TV illegally. Vintage car enthusiast Martin Maltas owns one of the few Seventies detector vans still in existence, a converted Dodge Spacevan. He worked in TV licence enforcement in Harrogate for four years in the early Eighties, but never saw a single detector van. Maltas adds, however, that his father occasionally used one while doing the same job in the Sixties. Ive talked to Dad and a lot of other people who worked in them and the whole point of the vans was their scare factor, he tells me. Theyd put adverts in the local paper saying TV detector vans are coming to your town. Then they would be driven around with their huge yellow aerials going around, to make sure they were seen. The detection equipment on the vans theoretically worked by picking up a signal that was emitted by the oscillator on TV sets. However, it was notoriously hard to operate, and almost useless at pinpointing televisions in blocks of flats and terraced homes, where there would be many TVs in close proximity. Indeed, an un-named caller to Radio 2 this week, who said he worked on one such vehicle in the Eighties and Nineties, claimed the equipment was rarely switched on. He said: There were aerials on the roof, connected to nothing. We called it flag-waving: driving around to show people we were about. Other recent correspondents to newspapers have suggested many vans carried no equipment at all. Since 2002, when the Royal Mail stopped running vans, analogue TVs have been replaced by digital ones, so old detection equipment would be obsolete.

Meanwhile, hostility to the licence fee has grown in tandem with the explosion in Freeview and satellite channels, which means people spend less time watching the BBC. In a bid to persuade them to pay up, the Corporation claims todays enforcement officers have hand-held detectors that can pinpoint TVs within 20 seconds. But they refuse to explain how these devices work or how many are in use. The number of detection vans is also a secret. However, a 2009 procurement document seen by the Mail states the BBC was at this time seeking to enhance the current fleet of vans by building a further fleet of vans (minimum five). That suggests there could be as few as ten in operation one for every 2.5million households. Interestingly, the BBC has since given evidence to the Information Commissioner arguing (successfully) that it should not be required to disclose details of the fleet under the Freedom of Information Act. Its submission, which has again been seen by this newspaper, argues that making such information public would change the publics perception of the effectiveness of detector vans. It further warns: If the deterrent effect of television detector vans is lost...a significant number of people would decide not to pay their licence fee. In other words, if the truth about these sinister vehicles which supposedly haunt our cul-de-sacs not to mention the men in moustaches who operate them ever gets out, then the BBC reckons well stop being scared of them.

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Comments (103)
Share what you think Newest Oldest Best rated Worst rated View all Report comment Terry rousers, Stocktoff, United Kingdom, moments ago As a radio ham I know that these claims by BBC are utter bull dust. At most they might be able to tell that something is oscillating at a certain frequency in the near vicinity but even that would be hard to detect and there is no way they can say it is definately a television.It could be any other piece of electrical equipment that happens to use circuitry which oscillates at that frequency.

Impossible to prove that it is a television. The oscillations from a t.v. Set would likely be so small they simply wouldnt be able to detect them without standing over the set anyway.Either that, or the BBC have the worlds most incredibly super-sensistive receivers.i doubt it !

0 0 Click to rate Report comment nonpc, UK, moments ago The BBC licence is useful for the BBC to show the political message IT wants to get across to the masses. They are known for their leftist political bias and they would hardly be in business producing the cheap, asinine and shallow programs they do were they funded by commercial means. They would have to start producing programs they used to be famous for- great dramas and documentaries. I don't have a licence. I don't have a TV.

0 0 Click to rate Report comment The Futurist, Chelmsford, moments ago People who don't have a TV receive threatening letters from TV Licensing on a regular basis (I know, as I didn't have a TV for years). After receiving a veritable mountain of these letters, I wrote to them and suggested that they park a detector van outside my house on an occasional basis and they would know that I didn't have a TV and could stop sending their infernal letters. Did they? Of course they didn't - because there is nothing in these vans apart from the driver's sandwiches. They are nothing more than a ploy to frighten people.

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Report comment Charles, London, United Kingdom, 22 minutes ago Its worth remembering that the TVLA ( television licensing Authority ) is a wholly owned subsidiary...of the BBC! They have the "license" to collect the fee's...so when ( IF ) they come calling at your front door simply refuse to speak to them....they have NO power to enter your home unless they have a court order. Ignore the bully boy tactics...its a lot of hot air.

0 3 Click to rate Report comment Mightysouthampton, Southampton, United Kingdom, 31 minutes ago 100% guaranteed to work, stop paying the license fee. When you receive there threatening letter, don't open it, wright "NO CONTRACT RETURN TO SENDER, YOUR IMPLIED RIGHT OF ACCESS HAS BEEN REMOVED" you will get no more letters and they are now legally not aloud to knock your door , the vans don't exist tv's can only receive signals not send them, hence the need of an aerial. Stop giving private corporations your hard earnt money.

1 12 Report comment Mightysouthampton, Southampton, United Kingdom, 17 minutes ago Forgot to mention you got see send it back recorded delivery, proof they received your non compliance. 0

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0 Click to rate Report comment Trickyhastings, hastings, United Kingdom, 37 minutes ago its time the Charter ended, the BBC is a commercial channel, it is no longer a peoples channel, to much scandal and over paid executives, people being paid more than PM, sorry in this time of saving money no time for overpaid people on our money

0 8 Click to rate Report comment Garry, Wolverhampton, 38 minutes ago Did you notice the royal crest on the side of the detector vehicle? So it is one big royal lie!

2 4 Report comment mtc, lancs, 16 minutes ago It's not the Royal Crest, it's the old post office logo. 0 0

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Click to rate Report comment Bobs, Hitchin, 41 minutes ago In the days when TV were cathode ray tubes driven by a 25,000 volt transformer, the signal produced could be detected from a distance. Since the advent of flat-screen plasma and the now more prevalent LED screens it is doubtful these could produce sufficient signal for a 'detector van' to monitor. And even if it could, how would it differentiate between a TV and nearby computers using the same technology? TV vans are a scare tactic.

0 13 Click to rate Report comment mike p, melbourne, 41 minutes ago My late father in law was accused,via a letter, of watching tv And he had been DEAD for 6 months plus was 88 yrs old when he died,so no license needed. THE VANS ARE EMPTY

1 15 Click to rate Report comment Billy Badger, Lincs, United Kingdom, 43 minutes ago I refuse to give the BBC another penny and have not had a TV license for 15 years. I got rid of my TV in 1998 and see no need to have one. My PC and the radio give me the media and news I need. Movies I watch on the PC. Simple. The TV detector van is and always has been a fantasy.

2 20 Click to rate The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline.

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