A MAN was left with a £252 bill after he admitted using a colour television without a licence.

Shane Gardner, 38, of Blythe Street, Abertillery, was prosecuted under the Communications Act 2003.

He pleaded guilty to using a television receiver without a licence between July 22, 2019 and August 1, 2019.

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At Newport Magistrates’ Court, Gardner was fined £100 and also ordered to pay £120 prosecution costs and a £32 surcharge.

The TV Licence fee changed on April 1.

An annual colour licence now costs £157.50, an increase of £3 on the previous fee.

A black and white licence costs £53, a rise of £1.

The BBC recently suggested the TV licence fee could be incorporated into a household's broadband, council tax or energy bills.

This could make it easier to collect, it claims.

The government is currently running a consultation into decriminalising licence fee evasion.

It is suggested people who fail to pay the fee but watch live TV anyway could be issued with a fixed penalty notice instead of being taken to court.

But the BBC says this move could cost it up to £1 billion over the next five years and trigger huge cuts to programmes.