utilitys:do they prosecute for meter tampering?

chanz4

I cant say how I know , however BG do a lot but mainly go after the canabis farms as priority. One slip up the person whom was selling bypass bars did was provide the other user ids that had bought the bars from him. As it was reported to the police they will investiage the seller.

I called ebays fraud line, it goes through to america and it was removed quite quick.

All im going to say is theft if theft, and suppliers do all talk so if caught by one you will be watched

[Deleted User]

thanks chanz4 ,that was quick work I ve reported a lot of stuff on ebays "report this item" link but they usually take little notice. I reckon B.G. and all the other utilities could find a bumper crop of meter substituters if they got hold of all the addresses of people buying these brand new G4 metric meters which have been on sale on ebay.

chanz4

Whos to say they dont buy them? Once you get the supplier, you get the buyers. Its like meters that are forsale today one says the property of national grid it has to be stolen property

dizziblonde

Yes they do prosecute - I used to sit on a desk near the revenue protection team at one of the big energy providers so got to see lots of the comings and goings, heading off to court outings, and phonecalls from people suddenly discovering they'd been rumbled and disconnected. And yes, you got a LOT of them were cannabis farms because they cost an absolute bomb to keep the plants warm.... well it was a bit more interesting than when I had to sit next to the energy efficiency team!

The guy who was the boss of the section had a cracking collection of photos of various different attempts at meter bypasses that he kept adding to as well (and would happily break out the powerpoint to show anyone who expressed a remote interest in his team's role).

[Deleted User]

Thanks dizziblonde, how long ago was that then? none of my many finds have ever made it to the Magistrates Court, apart from a cannabis farm I found and they do use a lot of both heat and light and even ventilation fans 24 hours a day.My main point to this thread is that the Utilitys now are saying because of their ridiculous non prosecution policy are saying to the public,you can have a free go at theft of electric and gas, because IF,and its a big IF, you get caught,you can jolly well pay us back and try again another time.Just try nicking a bottle of whiskey from Marks and Spencer,they wont just ask for it back if they catch you, you re off to the forbidding sight of the Magistrates Court and a criminal record.

Terrylw1

Are we talking warrants or prosecution though? In terms of warrants,suppliers use them to gain access to disconnect i.e. pull a fuse, remove a meter, etc.

The suppliers gets the results, recalculates a bill and tries to pursue it to recover the loss. Warrant charges on to of course. Then it goes down the path of debt collection against the tenants...if they can even find them (could be squarrers so try have no chance)

Now after they do this common practice, do they pursue a case via the police for theft of energy? I've never seen one in the local paper. I've also never heard of the utilities I have experience of doing this or even having a process leading to it.

I would be really interested in a view from a serving police officer since they often have to be there as well. They must be thinking "what a waste of my time"

Its going to cost them in providing evidence.

Ich_2

The couple of cases I know of were instigated by the police following other incidents and them discovering the theft..
In one case (a drug growing operation) there had been a meter bypass which had damaged the main fuse to the extent that the person involved had use a stolen hammer to "replace" the main fuse (I kid you not).
In the end I made 3 separate statements that did lead to a successful prosecution.

davehsug

When I asked I was told that ordinary domestic tampers are not prosecuted as the companies thought it was bad publicity! I would have thought the opposite.

utility_csa

chanz4 wrote: »

Whos to say they dont buy them? Once you get the supplier, you get the buyers. Its like meters that are forsale today one says the property of national grid it has to be stolen property

Only issue with this is its not illegal for customers to buy or own their own meters in electric anyways.

Its not a common practice in the non-half hourly world but slowly is becoming more common.

We will sell our meters to customers to fit on their own with our company name on. I do agree a lot of them are stolen though...

chanz4

Nope except for the ones advertising stolen meters, with national grid name printed on them etc. Its ilegal once you connect it to the main just like cable tv theft.