Irish father-of-five jailed for not paying his TV license

The judicial system in Ireland can sometimes leave us scratching our heads when we hear of serious cases of corruption and crime going unpunished, and joke that they only thing you can be jailed for is 'not paying your TV license'. But for one Arklow dad, being jailed for exactly that, was no laughing matter. Sean Browne, 36, said he was treated “like a murderer or a rapist” when he was locked up in medium-security Midlands Prison for failing to pay the €160 charge. Although Sean had expected to spend no more than a few hours in custody, he was informed he would be locked up overnight when he arrived at the prison, which also houses rapists and violent criminals.

He revealed: “The hardest part of it was that myself and my partner lost a baby three years ago and we hadn’t spent a night apart since. “That killed me, and it killed her. Just like that, it was taken away from us. It’s just broken me.

Mr. Browne is a water protester and explained in court that he had refused to pay the license fee charge “as a matter of principle”.

“I said I’m not buying one because I’m a water protester, I’ve been in crowds of 100,000 people and RTE is lying about it and saying it was a handful. “I said I’m not buying one until RTE tell the truth. He gave me a €220 fine and that was it. “I didn’t pay the fine, obviously, because if I don’t buy a TV licence I’m hardly going to pay the fine for not having one.”

Arrests for failure to pay the license fee are rare, and time spent in prison usually amounts to a short number of hours and at a substantial cost to the state. Failure to produce evidence of a television license upon inspection can result in a court appearance, fines of up to €1,000 or a prison sentence. For more information, visit Citizen's Advice Ireland