Couple's TV licence trick foiled

A COUPLE IN Aberdeen wrapped their television in a parcel of tin foil to try to avoid paying their licence.

The believed the silver foil would make their set invisible to hi-tech detector vans.

But the couple got a shock when a TV licensing squad came knocking on their door after their state-of-the art equipment picked up the set.

The lengths householders will go to dodge paying a licence fee were revealed yesterday by TV Licensing, the firm which detects rogue viewers. A wide range of weird and wonderful excuses were recorded across the country over the last year, but inspectors believe the citizens of the granite city - allegedly notorious for parsimony - were by far and away the most inventive.

One household in the area told detectives they only used their television for their cat to sleep on because it was "nice and warm". Others said their set was broken and that the standby light was only on to stop the damp getting in.

And one woman claimed she had never seen the television before and her husband must have bought it for their son.

Fergus Reid, a spokesman for TV Licensing, said:

"Wrapping your TV in tin foil is not going to help. You are going to get caught out and no excuse will get you out of it. Technology is developing all the time and we are finding better and quicker ways to catch people who are not paying their fees."