Radio Related Court Cases

Radiocommunications Agency Statement:- In 1999 the Agency successfully prosecuted 47 people arising from their involvement with unlicensed broadcasting stations. Average fines, where imposed, were £229 and average costs awarded to the Agency were £307. The courts can also order all equipment to be forfeited. The Agency also carried out 1414 raids on 239 unlicensed broadcasting stations. 1218 of the raids were on 167 stations in the London area.

Before reading on, please bear in mind that an anagram of Radiocommunications Agency is :-

This one is particularly apt, due to their interfering with evidence in the case of Crown Vs George, sections of text were obliterated, documents copied, and then the altered documents handed to the court as evidence. Strangely, being caught out deliberately altering evidence didn't end up with any legal action being taken against them.
The work of The Radiocommunications Agency is now carried out by Ofcom.

Anagrams of Office Of Communications are:-

Court Cases

Why are we interested?

What interests us are the so-called offences committed, and the penalties handed down.
These penalties are quite often many times more than those given to real criminals involved in theft, robbery, and violent attacks.
When an analogy is made with motoring offences (below), you really see the discrepancies, it is possible to cause death by dangerous driving, and be fined less than for playing music on an amateur radio repeater!

If that were not enough of an example, invariably, the motorist will receive the licence for his instrument of death back years before a radio amateur will be legally allowed to use his radio again. What's all that about then?

In Perspective

Don't get any wrong ideas about the likelihood of being prosecuted for any contravention of The WT Act 1949 etc., bare in mind that more people have walked on the moon than LPWS members have been prosecuted. We think that puts it into an easily understood form.

Judging by their own figures, the over zealous interest in prosecuting Radio Amateurs seems to have all but been stopped since Ofcom took over, and the idiots from the R.I.S. were found sensible jobs, only 1 prosecution since 2002!

The old Radiocommunications Agency used to chase people about the countryside, often at weekends and in the dead of night (overtime?).
Ofcom are conspicuous by their absence. They seem to have forgotten about amateur radio and the trivialities people used to complain about, as the figures for what they now call "Spectrum Enforcement" show.
The whole complexion of their operations seem to be concentrating on UBR or Pirate Radio. The most probable reason being that this is an income generating area, and amateur radio is now free. If you couple this with the relaxation of the rules and the scrapping of the BR68, there is precious little you can do now that could end up in a prosecution

These are official figures, and there is a data gap for 2008 and 2009.

 Prosecution Cases - Financial Years 2010/13

Year	Interference complaints				Complaints (non-interference)		Operations conducted by Ofcom against pirate stations		No of pirate stations involved
	Critical service		Other
	London	Rest of UK	London	Rest of UK	London	Rest of UK	London	Rest of UK	London	Rest of UK
2010	29	4	506	72	78	22	346	63	83	21
2011	35	0	424	69	46	14	336	48	80	16
2012	36	2	288	48	64	12	392	39	75	24
2013	21	5	179	93	39	33	387	77	76	26

Prosecution Cases - Financial Year 2006/07

Categories	Persons prosecuted	Persons convicted	Fines imposed (£)	Costs awarded (£)	Forfeiture orders	Conditional discharges	Absolute discharges	Official cautions	Warning letters sent
Illegal Broadcasting	61	61	6,845.00	20,889.50	42	31	1	10	31
Citizens Band (CB)	1	1	50.00	0.00	1	0	0	0	0
EMC	1	1	2,000.00	3,000.00	1	0	0	0	1
RTTE	5	5	9,500.00	12,100.00	3	1	0	7	22
Cordless Phones	0	0	0.00	0.00	0	0	0	7	6
Amateur radio	0	0	0.00	0.00	0	0	0	0	1
Private Business Radio	0	0	0.00	00.00	0	0	0	5	16
Others	Hoax 1 *	1	700.00	0.00	1	0	0	1	7
TOTAL	70	70	19,095.00	35,989.50	48	32	1	30	84

*  Coastal Station Radio

Prosecution Cases - Financial Year 2005/06

Categories	Persons prosecuted	Persons convicted	Fines imposed (£)	Costs awarded (£)	Forfeiture orders	Conditional discharges	Absolute discharges	Official cautions	Warning letters sent
Illegal Broadcasting	52	52	3,864.00	9,400.00	37	17	0	6	35
Citizens Band (CB)	0	0	0.00	0.00	0	0	0	1	1
EMC	1	1	2,000.00	2,000.00	0	1	0	3	0
RTTE	2	2	2,000.00	1,100.00	1	1	0	11	52
Cordless Phones	0	0	0.00	0.00	0	0	0	0	3
Amateur radio	0	0	0.00	0.00	0	0	0	1	3
Private Business Radio	8	8	700.00	1,750.00	2	0	0	13	4
Marine	1	1	0.00	200.00	1	0	0	0	0
Illegal 6.6MHz use	0	0	0.00	0.00	0	0	0	2	0
Others	1	1	500.00	2,072.00	0	0	0	11	13
TOTAL	65	65	9,064.00	16,522.00	41	19	0	48	111

Prosecution Cases - Financial Year 2004/05

Categories	Persons prosecuted	Person convicted	Fines imposed (£)	Costs awarded (£)	Forfeiture Orders	Conditional discharges	Absolute discharges	Admonishments (Scotland)	Official Cautions	Warning letters sent
Illegal Broadcasting	40	40	8740.00	31,091.57	22	20	0	1	10	10
Citizens Band (CB)	2	2	100	1,700.00	2	2	0	0	1	3
RTTE Regulations	1	1	0	1,260.00	1	1	0	0	11	21
RTTE Regulations (Forfeiture)	0	0	0	2,000.00	0	0	0	0	0	0
Amateur Radio	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2
Private Business Radio	3	3	2,250.00	5,702.50	0	0	0	0	7	4
Marine Radio	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0
Illegal 6.6MHz Use	1	1	300.00	200.00	0	0	0	0	0	0
Hoax Message	1	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	1	5
TOTAL	48	48	11,390.00	41,954.07	26	23	0	1	33	46

Prosecution Cases - Financial Year 2003/04

Categories	Persons prosecuted	Person convicted	Fines imposed (£)	Costs awarded (£)	Forfeiture Orders	Conditional discharges	Absolute discharges	Admonishments (Scotland)	Official Cautions	Warning letters sent
CB - not licensable	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	2
CB - licensable	1	1	150	110	1	0	0	0	1	1
pirate radio	48	48	15900	22096.43	41	16	0	5	6	19
cordless telephones	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
PMR	1	1	2	300	0	1	0	0	12	1
Amateur	1	1	150	100	0	0	0	0	1	3
marine	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	10	0
6.6 MHz	1	1	0	500	1	1	0	0	0	0
others	3	3	4000	5960	3	2	0	0	2	4
TOTAL	55	55	20200	29066.43	46	20	0	5	23	31

Prosecution Cases - Financial Year 2002/03

Categories	Persons prosecuted	Person convicted	Fines imposed (£)	Costs awarded (£)	Forfeiture Orders	Conditional discharges	Absolute discharges	Admonishments (Scotland)	Official Cautions	Warning letters sent
CB - not licensable	6	6	1000	750	3	3	0	0	3	4
CB - licensable	6	6	400	620	1	1	0	0	10	0
pirate radio	56	56	6,475	12,893	43	19	0	2	9	42
cordless telephones	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	2
PMR	2	2	1300	540	1	0	0	0	8	2
Amateur	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
marine	2	2	100	450	0	1	0	0	10	0
6.6 MHz	2	2	3,400	250	1	0	0	0	0	0
others	7	7	4,200	12,760	6	2	0	0	7	5
TOTAL	55	55	20200	29066.43	46	20	0	5	23	31