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WorldBBC harasses Claudia Lawrence over TV license charges

Date:

BBC harasses Claudia Lawrence over TV license charges

14 years after Claudia Lawrence vanished, her mother claims the BBC is still harassing her for her TV license payment and threatening legal action.

After she failed to show up for work in March 2009, Ms. Lawrence, a chef at the University of York, has vanished.

Despite the fact that no body has ever been discovered, detectives suspect she was murdered.

Yet despite her well-publicised disappearance, Claudia’s heartbroken mother Joan, 79, has revealed how letters are still being sent to her cottage several times a year demanding her daughter pay her licence fee.

EMBARGOED TO 0001 MONDAY FEBRUARY 15 File photo dated 14/4/2009 of Peter Lawrence with a 'Filpot' table-top box displaying images of his missing daughter. The father of missing chef Claudia Lawrence who is feared murdered has died, without ever knowing what has happened to his daughter. Lawrence died on Thursday aged 74, in St Leonards Hospice, York following a short illness, his family said in a statement. Issue date: Monday February 15, 2021. PA Photo. See PA story DEATH Lawrence. Photo credit should read: Frank Dwyer/PA Wire
Claudia Lawrence went missing in 2009 and her body has never been found (Picture: PA)

Speaking to the Sun, she says the demands have caused her ‘untold heartache’ and has called on the police to stop the BBC from sending the letters.

Joan continues to maintain her daughter’s former home by herself after her ex-husband Peter died aged 74 in 2021.

 She drives there from Malton, North Yorkshire, every two weeks.

‘There was a letter recently, threatening a £1,000 fine if the licence wasn’t paid. It’s unbelievable,’ she said.

‘I’ve written to them to tell them what’s happened, and the police are supposed to be sorting it out, but the letters still come.’

The continued harassment comes despite her daughter’s disappearance, and a public appeal from Joan, having featured on the BBC’s Crimewatch programme.

She added: ‘You’d think they’d know by now, after all the publicity, wouldn’t you?

Embargoed to 1730 Tuesday August 24 Undated handout file photo issued by North Yorkshire Police of Claudia Lawrence. Police looking for the missing university chef have begun a major search operation in gravel pits about eight miles from her home in York. North Yorkshire Police confirmed on Tuesday an operation has begun to search the gravel pits at Sand Hutton, to the east of York. Issue date: Tuesday August 24, 2021. PA Photo. Ms Lawrence went missing 12 years ago and police believe she was murdered, although no body has ever been found. See PA story POLICE Chef. Photo credit should read: North Yorkshire Police/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
Despite her much-publicised disappearance, letters from the BBC demanding she pay her TV Licence are still being sent to her home (Picture: PA)

‘They must have sent two or three letters a year in all the time this has been happening. One was nasty and horrible. It threatened that not paying could affect her credit score.

‘I’m not someone who has ever had any debts, I pay for things straight away, so it was an awful thing to read. It really must stop.’

More than 52,000 people were fined following TV licence prosecutions in the latest figures from 2020- An estimated 76 percent of which were women.

In January, BBC chairman Richard Sharp criticised the £159-a-year licence fee as a regressive tax which penalised women, pensioners and the poor.

He said: ‘In some ways it’s considered anachronistic because there are other countries that adopt other mechanisms. 

‘And there are a number of issues in terms of how we collect the licence fee from pensioners and also issues arising from people’s failure to pay the licence for example, with respect to gender issues, so it is imperfect.’

The initial police probe into Claudia’s disappearance was widely criticised for focusing on her love life and the Nag’s Head pub in York where she worked as a chef, which was just four doors away from her home.

Five men were arrested on suspicion of murder, but nobody has ever been charged.

Detectives blamed a lack of CCTV, data and forensic evidence for their failure to solve the case.

A renewed effort to find her body took place in 2021 and saw teams of police experts, search dogs, divers and forensic archaeologists spend two weeks scouring a lake and nearby woods for potential spots where her body could have been left.

However, they failed to make a breakthrough and the search was eventually called off.

In a public appeal last year, Joan said she is continuing to try and solve the mystery for herself and is reviewing what happened ‘with a fine-toothed comb’ for ‘simple things that have been missed’. 

A BBC spokesman said the letters should have stopped once Claudia’s mother contacted them about the issue in 2022, but instead only a temporary pause was put in place and the automated letters restarted in February this year.

‘We’re very sorry for the distress caused to Mrs Lawrence and we will be apologising to her directly,’ the spokesperson told Metro.

‘We have taken steps to ensure no further letter are sent to the address.’

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