Bradford has plummeted in the TV licence-dodging stakes, according to latest figures.

And the district has lost its place in the so-called League of Shame where the worst 50 postcode areas for licence evasion are named.

Statistics collected by TV Licensing show 1,237 people in the district were caught out by detection squads between October 1999 and March 2000 compared to 2,122 in the previous six months.

And Bradford has bucked the national trend with an overall drop of 300 evaders in the past year.

TVL regional communications manager John Barber said one of the reasons for the decline was a 'target zero' operation in the area in February when people were warned detection teams were coming.

"There are usually one or two areas that we crack down on. But it's good news for Bradford people who are realising it makes more economic sense to buy a licence rather than face the fine.

"There are two myths about dodging licences. One is that detector vans don't work - they do because they interpret TV signals. The second is that we send red letters warning people. We only send out one letter and then knock on your door."

He added that new detection equipment such as hand-held scanners meant televisions could be tracked down anywhere, even when hidden.

The worst area for licence dodging is Glasgow with 6,596 evaders caught between October 1999 and March 2000. And Leeds has jumped from 26th place to 18th in the league with 2,512 viewers being caught out.

TVL regional manager north Mark Auslebrook said: "Certainly we are very pleased that evasion in Bradford appears to be in decline. However, we intend to keep up the pressure as we still caught a significant number of licence dodgers over the past six months."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.