THEIR presence on a street could cause major consternation among households. With their large aerials there was no mistaking when the TV detector vans were out and about.

The specially-adapated vehicles would look to unearth those homes which were using a TV set without having bought a licence.

These photographs from our archive show detector vans - and cars - from different eras as they went about their work.

As the years went by the electronics became more sophisticated and the vans were far less conspicuous.