Most jailed over TV licences ‘freed in hours’

The majority of people jailed for not paying TV licence fines last year spent only a few hours in prison, new figures show.

Last year, 242 people were jailed for not paying fines after failing to pay their €160 TV licence.

New figures provided by the Prison Service in response to a Freedom of Information request show that the 97.5% of those jailed walked free within hours — irrespective of the sentence.