Thousands in court every week for not having a TV licence A total of 140,000 people were convicted of avoiding the licence fee last year, giving them a criminal record and in some cases, those who failed to pay the fine were handed a prison sentence. Figures from the Ministry of Justice showed licence fee fines totalled almost £25 million in 2010, up from £16.5 million in 2007. A TV Licensing spokesman said: "On behalf of the majority who pay, we will prosecute evaders. The estimated evasion rate has remained steady, at a low of around five per cent, for the last five years. TV Licence evasion cases may account for one in ten cases, but they take up a very small proportion of court time as few people attend court.