TELEVISION licence dodgers in East Lancashire were warned today: "We know who you are and you're a sitting duck!"

More than 1,400 were caught in the BB postcode area last year -- which covers Blackburn and Burnley - and nationally there was a rise of 75 per cent from the previous 12 months.

Regional communications manager John Barber warned with advancing technology more people would be caught and they would face possible fines of up to £1,000.

John, who was in Blackburn to launch the new campaign aided by an army of small plastic ducks, said: "The equipment is getting more and more sophisticated.

"We now have hand-held computers which means we can stand outside a flat we suspect and know if they have a licence. It was much harder before."

Some 26 million names and addresses of householders are held on a national database in Bristol. Certain areas are targeted and a team of 15 officers is deployed.

The BB postcode has been selected and a month-long campaign will get underway on Friday.

John said: "The BB area is one of the worst, with a high number of evaders which we are tracking. This campaign is a warning to people that we know where they are."

With visits not limited to office hours -- they more often or not come during peak viewing times -- the dreaded knock could come when you least expect it.

And John warned that old excuses would fall on deaf ears.

He said: There aren't many excuses we have not heard before. There is an urban myth that detector vans don't actually work and are there just to scare people. But that's not true at all.

"And some people even think that covering your telly in tinfoil will fool the detectors. That doesn't work either."