TV licence chiefs have spent two years targeting a Bradford pensioner - despite him being blind and not owning a television for 13 years.

Now they are threatening to pay Keith Hallsworth a visit unless he coughs up for a half price licence.

Mr Hallsworth - who has not had a TV since 1977 after he lost his sight - is dependent upon his guide dog Hanley.

But it hasn't stopped TV Licensing from sending the 67-year-old threatening letters and promising to drop in unannounced to check up on him.

Mr Hallsworth, of Bradford Moor, said he has been trying to convince TV Licensing bosses for two years that he doesn't have a television.

"They've been sending me letters since 1998, and my sister has been telling them for all that time I'm blind and haven't got a TV," he said.

"Don't they believe me or something? And now they're threatening to come and see me.

"Well at least if they do it will prove to them once and for all that I'm blind."

Mr Hallsworth's sister, Maureen Roberts, said: "This would have been bad enough by itself, but it's come after he was the victim of two thefts by con artists, the last only a few months ago.

"It's not as though he's suddenly going to get his sight back overnight."

The letters have demanded half the licence fee - £52 for colour and £17.25 for black and white - because he is blind.

Today, a TV Licensing spokesman said with 25 million people on its database there were bound to be the occasional crossed wires.

He said he regretted causing Mr Hallsworth any distress and if he did not have a set there was nothing to worry about.

He said: "If someone sends us a letter saying they are blind, our policy is to send out an officer to check the details with the person.

"This takes a bit of time but it shouldn't take two years. Last year we found that one-third of people who said they did not have to pay the licence were making fraudulent claims.

"We contact people from time to time in case their circumstances have changed and a lot of blind or partially-sighted people do have TV sets."

A spokesman for the Royal National Institute for the Blind admitted Mr Hallsworth's case was the first she had come across and said he may just have been caught up in an unfortunate chain of letters.