A whistle-blower at Capita, the firm paid £59million a year by the BBC to collect TV licence fees, has told the Daily Mail that large bonuses were paid to their 30-plus area managers to encourage them to take consumers to court.

Capita had told MPs investigating concerns over the way it collected licence fees that bonuses were only paid on sales of licences, which, given the above, was untrue .The BBC claimed that this was the same story they were told by Capita.

Last year MPs on the Public Accounts Committee savaged both the BBC and Capita over bullying methods used to collect licence fees. Threatened with investigation of their business premises some businesses have advised Capita/BBC that they do not need a licence, only to be told by Capita/BBC that since some business types lie about this they will continue to investigate them anyway.