meter tampering

[Deleted User]

British Gas do target takeaways in particular. They may have other evidence of the meter being taken off lots of times other than the usual wear on the reverse side of a cog. There are at least 4 cogs in a gas meter, which if used in reverse would wear all 4 of them. They are photographed with a high quality close focus specialist camera. There would be wear on the brass unions which also shed minute particles of brass dust which gather in the wells. Chinese takeaways and kebab shops are often found to be bypassing ( 23 in the Manchester area in a short period last year ) There is a new scam going the rounds now where the meter can be doctored to give a 50% to 75% reduction , so unless you know for sure that its not the new way of fraud I would nt take it to a solicitor as the evidence is overwhelming. with this new fraud a one off payment to an expert ( approx £400 ) who has genuine replacement seals, not the fake chinese ones available on the internet.The new fraud is quite easy to spot by RPU people, meter readers in general are not aware of it so will miss it.
Personally I think you have a case if you push them to reveal the evidence of the specific wear on the cogs. If its only on one cog ( they are plastic ) its not enough eveidence .Also your takings and gas consumption would match . They have all the figures over the years available to show typical gas use for low,average, and high using shops.

chanz4

upload a copy of the report to photo bucket

C_Mababejive

Not speaking specifically about the poster but there is huge energy theft going on in the takeaway/fast food industry..massive amounts of money. It doesnt disappear. The losses are smeared across all other customers and their bills contain an element to cover such losses.

All such meters are taken,sealed in secure containers and sent to independent assessment establishments for a report to be produced.

ptwparkinson

we were supposed to attend magistrates court tomorrow at 0945 because bg applied for a warrant for disconnection . I was going to attend to defend our case . have been trying to find out all day who they are sending ... all day long they have been saying they don`t know . at 5.45 pm they rang me tonight to say they have dropped tomorrow`s hearing and will be putting this through civil court later on .

ptwparkinson

who sent me a pm --- I can`t open it !!

ptwparkinson

chanz4 do you have an e mail address and I`ll scan the report and e mail to you -- or I can just copy and paste it into here -- it`s not very long

chanz4

copy and paste it here

ptwparkinson

This is the relevant part of the report from Scienco .
It states that there is no damage to the seal or diaphragm -- in good condition etc ---- so how are we supposed to have tampered with the meter --- the meter is located in the shop window and if we were doing things the Police walk by on patrol and passersby and I know if I saw someone doing something suspicious with a meter I would report it because we are all smeared with the cost of this sort of crime . Anyway --- the case is going to Civil Court now and so I will present my case for my defence at that time .


examined, bothexternally and internally, for signs of tampering or illegal

connection byunauthorised persons. Security seal no 0001883 & 0001882.

2.Initial Examination

2.1 Themeter ministry seal was intact and the meter case was in good

condition with no signsof damage.

3.Internal Examination

3.1 Ondismantling the case;

3.1.1 Thediaphragm assembly had not been tampered with.

3.1.2 Thevalve assembly had not been tampered with.

3.1.3 Thegearbox was dismantled to inspect the drive yolk.

Form No. MP2/3/2 Issue No.2 Page 2

.scienlcol

4.Examination of the Drive Yolk

There was wearing onboth the forward and reverse faces of the drive yolk

(Photographs 1& 2).

5.Conclusions

In my opinion this meterhas been operated in reverse and th is hasprevented

the meter from duly registering thequantity of gas supplied.

ptwparkinson

note for espresso --- what did you mean by does anyone remember Jackanory ????

my last e mail to bg this morning which is a reiteration of what I have been stating for the last 11 months

1. I have been advised to ask you what is the specific evidence of wear on the cog or cogs --- is there only one plastic cog

2. was discussing with my wife yesterday and she was reminding me that when we first opened there was a chef , assistant chef , counter person and one more person and we were starting to do quite well ---- this is reflected in our consumption for the first year ---- the chef left with his girlfriend and her daughter who were staff members --- the next chef we employed and the one after were sub standard and we lost a significant amount of business because the food just was not up to our previous standards ---- at this point my wife decided to do the cooking herself -- her cooking is second to none and is even better than restaurant standard --- so we have been battling the recession to try to rebuild our business but it has not been working for various reasons ---- we are in a bad position for parking ---- too many takeaways in the area doing silly deals -- 3 for the price of 1 -- cheap slop basically but that`s what people seem to want -- they are not interested in quality --- they just want cheap meals

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take all this into consideration plus the fact that we close down for annual holidays and you will see why our consumption has not been at the level expected for the equipment which is carried by the business

3. when we go to Civil Court I am expecting representation of our defence to take at least half a day because the historical bills for the consumption should be examined by the court in minute detail --- there is no other way in fairness to ourselves --- plus the fact that I feel it necessary to read out in court all of my e mails individually and this could very well take up at least one and a half hours --- I don`t know how these cases work but I need my day in court and if it actually takes a full day and not just half a day -- then so be it

like I have said umpteen times

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I do not intend to be paying you any monies for something that was not consumed

ptwparkinson

to chanz4

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it was someone called (text removed by MSE Forum Team) and someone else who`s Christian name was (text removed by MSE Forum Team) I think

When I rang initially to speak with (text removed by MSE Forum Team) he was full of arrogance and attitude and his position was that we are guilty until proven guilty

I spoken with quite a few engineers now and some of them know (text removed by MSE Forum Team) and say that he is bombastic , arrogant and totally obsessive and that he is like a dog with a bone --- he just won`t let go and the word innocent does not exist in his way of thinking

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benefit of the doubt --- in his mind there seems to be no such thing --- in fact one person said it`s about time(text removed by MSE Forum Team) was put out to pasture --- however I would consider that to be unfair because he is just doing his job and there are a lot of people out there who do deserve to be caught

I had no idea that there were so many takeaways and kebab houses doing this --- they must be mad and truly greedier even than BG and the other major companies

HOWEVER ---- the big 6 are saying that they need to charge what they do in order to reinvest in the future --- what do people think of this --- are they conning us all or are we all being unrealistic about our expectations of cost --- my thinking is just don`t use what you can`t afford --- in our house we have all the radiators turned down low and if it`s a bit chilly it wrap a duvet around you time and put on an extra jumper maybe --- we can`t afford to keep our gas running high 24/7 and in any case it is unhealthy --- I remember when I had a flat in a block and we paid service fees --- the central heating went off at 11 pm -- it wasn`t on during the daytime even at weekends --- didn`t cause any hardship --- BUT I feel that here should be more help for the OAP`s --- they are hit very hard