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Should non-payment of a mobile phone bill be a criminal offence?

It used to be known as abstraction of electricity on a landline telephone network but it might be better referred to as abstraction of EM waves or photons, depending on how you view the wave particle duality, on a mobile network.

A friend racked up a mobile phone bill of nearly £2000 as a result of exceeding his data allowance whilst abroad back in 2017. He changed his network provider then cancelled the direct debit resulting in this bill going unpaid to today. It's not actually illegal to do this as all the old network provider can do is demand the payment, as a civil matter, and ruin his credit rating. He claims that unlike an unpaid gas or electricity bill, an unpaid phone bill has not consumed any of the earth's precious natural resources apart from a bit of electricity that cost only a tiny fraction of the value of the bill.

A local bobby disagrees and says that theft is theft regardless of whether it's a tangible object or a non-tangible service, so the criminal should be brought to justice and jailed.

Does the IET have a position regarding the legal status of unpaid phone bills and whether or not refusal to pay should be a criminal offence?

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0 Roy Bowdler over 4 years ago

There are working examples of Uniselectors at Bletchley Park, I went last time on an IET local network visit, which seem to come up every year or two.

I was trained to fault-find on our local private network telephone system (a power station) and later HV Grid protection equipment, which relied on pilot lines, usually rented from Post Office Telecom. At that time relay based control systems were ubiquitous, although there was one system with printed circuit board based logic control, several large cabinets to achieve what a small PLC would do nowadays. I should relate that there was a real sense of satisfaction in identifying faults, using a combination of schematic drawings and often observations and a bit of “tinkering”. The results could involve first having to free people trapped in a lift 150ft up, or safely dealing with a several ton load stuck in a dangerous position.

Returning to the main subject of non-payment , in my laypersons opinion, to be considered “criminal” there has to be clear prima facie evidence of an intent to dishonestly deprive some else of their property (or revenue). There are many areas of service provision where suppliers seek to be exploitative or maximise profit and consumers legitimately seek to avoid being exploited. Hence various consumer protection legislation to balance the rights of the less powerful against exploitative practice. As a “civil” issue (ie a commercial dispute) popular consumerism, led by sections of the media have become a well established counterbalance to exploitative or incompetent practices.

Touching on traffic or parking penalties. I was a “victim” of this several years ago. I made a business visit by car with two colleagues to a facility in suburban West London. My two colleagues had travelled by Train/Tube, so at the end I offered to drop them off at the nearest station. I was unfamiliar with the area as were they, but they recognised the return route and guided me. As I emerged from under a bridge they said “we’re here” so I slowed carefully pulled over and dropped them off. Unbeknown to me at the time, I had infringed a thick yellow line “bus stop” and was sent a penalty charge by the local authority. Disputing the penalty, I was sent CCTV evidence (the camera seemed to be controlled by an operator) which showed clearly that a pedestrian had walked into the road from the opposite side taking my attention and that my rear seat passenger had begun to open the car door as I was still moving. I was stationary for less than 20 seconds and no other vehicle was nearby as a crossing behind me was on red.

My appeal was rejected as was eventually the intervention of my MP. The appeal adjudicator stated that my evidence was simply “mitigation” which was not something that they could take into consideration. This in my opinion breaches the common law principle that the reasonable actions of a reasonable person are not a “crime”. Obviously I did not commit a “crime” , but public bodies were still allowed to punish me. It doesn’t matter about me and on the principle of “swings and roundabouts”, I have probably got away with many motoring infringements over the years. Police discretion and public toleration are quite important principles of how the law is actually applied. Perhaps if money were no object, I could have employed a “Mr Loophole” lawyer, but it obviously wasn’t worth it. Had I impeded a bus, then my actions, albeit innocent, could be argued to be deserving of a penalty in the “public interest”.

My concern is that powerful exploitative parties, in this case a London Local Authority and the legal system that constrains them is unbalanced such that evidence in defence can simply be dismissed as “mitigation” and therefore inadmissible. Any thoughts welcome!
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0 Roy Bowdler over 4 years ago

There are working examples of Uniselectors at Bletchley Park, I went last time on an IET local network visit, which seem to come up every year or two.

I was trained to fault-find on our local private network telephone system (a power station) and later HV Grid protection equipment, which relied on pilot lines, usually rented from Post Office Telecom. At that time relay based control systems were ubiquitous, although there was one system with printed circuit board based logic control, several large cabinets to achieve what a small PLC would do nowadays. I should relate that there was a real sense of satisfaction in identifying faults, using a combination of schematic drawings and often observations and a bit of “tinkering”. The results could involve first having to free people trapped in a lift 150ft up, or safely dealing with a several ton load stuck in a dangerous position.

Returning to the main subject of non-payment , in my laypersons opinion, to be considered “criminal” there has to be clear prima facie evidence of an intent to dishonestly deprive some else of their property (or revenue). There are many areas of service provision where suppliers seek to be exploitative or maximise profit and consumers legitimately seek to avoid being exploited. Hence various consumer protection legislation to balance the rights of the less powerful against exploitative practice. As a “civil” issue (ie a commercial dispute) popular consumerism, led by sections of the media have become a well established counterbalance to exploitative or incompetent practices.

Touching on traffic or parking penalties. I was a “victim” of this several years ago. I made a business visit by car with two colleagues to a facility in suburban West London. My two colleagues had travelled by Train/Tube, so at the end I offered to drop them off at the nearest station. I was unfamiliar with the area as were they, but they recognised the return route and guided me. As I emerged from under a bridge they said “we’re here” so I slowed carefully pulled over and dropped them off. Unbeknown to me at the time, I had infringed a thick yellow line “bus stop” and was sent a penalty charge by the local authority. Disputing the penalty, I was sent CCTV evidence (the camera seemed to be controlled by an operator) which showed clearly that a pedestrian had walked into the road from the opposite side taking my attention and that my rear seat passenger had begun to open the car door as I was still moving. I was stationary for less than 20 seconds and no other vehicle was nearby as a crossing behind me was on red.

My appeal was rejected as was eventually the intervention of my MP. The appeal adjudicator stated that my evidence was simply “mitigation” which was not something that they could take into consideration. This in my opinion breaches the common law principle that the reasonable actions of a reasonable person are not a “crime”. Obviously I did not commit a “crime” , but public bodies were still allowed to punish me. It doesn’t matter about me and on the principle of “swings and roundabouts”, I have probably got away with many motoring infringements over the years. Police discretion and public toleration are quite important principles of how the law is actually applied. Perhaps if money were no object, I could have employed a “Mr Loophole” lawyer, but it obviously wasn’t worth it. Had I impeded a bus, then my actions, albeit innocent, could be argued to be deserving of a penalty in the “public interest”.

My concern is that powerful exploitative parties, in this case a London Local Authority and the legal system that constrains them is unbalanced such that evidence in defence can simply be dismissed as “mitigation” and therefore inadmissible. Any thoughts welcome!
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Should non-payment of a mobile phone bill be a criminal offence?

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