Re: Once upon a time detector vans existed
>The vans detected the leaked local oscillator (not the IF) from the first stage of the radio receivers that picked up the TV signal.
Which totally worked in a block of flats full of TVs. Or even a typical terraced street full of TVs when the van wasn't parked right on the doorstep of the house.
And these days many terraces are split into top/bottom flats.
Bottom line - this is all bullshit. The usual Capita approach is to bully people until they sign a confession and incriminate themselves. Then the court can rubber-stamp a fine.
I'm not aware of any cases where TV detector van "evidence" was used to secure a conviction. I don't expect this to change.
Why, you ask? Because if it were technically possible, the BBC would have made a big news story out of a successful prosecution. It would have been totally worth the money spent on lawyers.
Because there was no there there, they didn't - and won't. A case that relies on a real criminal trial with real forensic digital evidence would cost tens of thousands at a minimum, and there's always a chance it would go the wrong way.
Is it worth it for £150? If you don't have rock-solid evidence - no, it's not.
But PR is as cheap as lawyers are expensive, so it's much more cost-effective to put out these nonsense stories and hope the public is gullible enough to buy them.