BBC’s Big Bill for Compensation hits £1million

By Michael MacLeod

MICROPHONES dropped down toilets and tarmac damage caused by Top Gear are among £1million of insurance claims paid by the BBC in the past thee years.

Compensation payouts for hundreds of incidents have cost the broadcaster the equivalent of more than 6,700 people’s TV licence fee payments.

The bill includes £9,000 paid to extra who fell from the crow’s nest of a ship during filming of a period drama, £8,000 for road damage caused by the Top Gear team and £2,000 to a museum after a film crew knocked over a marble plinth.