The organisation that detects television licence fee evasion says more people are being caught in rural areas after it brought in a fleet of countryside-friendly motorbikes and 4x4 vehicles.

New half-year figures show that the new methods are paying off, with several smaller centres appearing in the table of the worst 20 offenders for the first time.

TV Licensing's enforcement division said the new vehicles allow it to monitor households in more remote locations such as the Scottish Highlands and the Channel Islands much more effectively.

Swansea enters at 15th in the list of worst offenders, with 1,552 people caught between January and June. Aberdeen is 17th with 1,491 and Stoke-on-Trent at 18 on the list with 1,471.

TV Licensing said it had caught 200,343 people watching television without a valid licence in the first six months of the year, about the same level as this time in 2005.

However, a spokesman said that with evasion at an all-time low of 4.7%, the proportion of people being caught has grown.

The body said that the figure equated to the population of a city the size of Newcastle or Norwich, while more than 1,100 people were caught on average every day.

"Evaders have been located across the UK and Northern Ireland, ranging from the Scottish Highlands, to the southernmost Channel Islands," said a spokesman for TV Licensing.

"We have a database of more than 28m addresses, allowing us to focus our visiting on properties which have no record of a TV licence, and the results show how successful we've been at pinpointing those who don't pay, wherever they live."

More than one-third of evaders come from just 20 cities, with London, Glasgow and Birmingham leading the way.

A record 25m licences are in force across the UK.

A colour licence costs £131.50, while a black and white licence stands at £44. Those caught without a licence are liable for a £1,000 fine.

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