This is well known to be a a lie. The vans are fake. It's basically just extortion.

Just think of it as part of our eccentric british ways.

EDIT: just to add, I pay my license fee, happily, even though I dont have to because its not required to watch the iPlayer streaming service, which is how I watch almost all my TV. The fee is pretty cheap considering the sheer breadth of services the BBC provides. The UK would essentially fall apart without it culturally.