Electricity and gas meter fraud

Press, 14 August 1976, Page 5

Electricity and gas meter fraud

A man described as a “veteran offender,” who had found ways of by-passing the gas and electricity meters at his home, was given a suspended sentence, with the condition that he undertake 108 hours of community work, by Mr B. A. Palmer, S.M. in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Gavin Edgar William Kinsman, aged 47, a sickness beneficiary, had pleaded not guilty to a charge of attempting to steal electricity and to three charges brought under the Electricians Act. He was found guilty last week on all four charges. At the defended hearing, technical evidence was suppressed of the methods used by Kinsman to by-pass the meters, so that he could obtain free electricity and gas after both services had been disconnected at his house. Counsel (Mr E. T. Higgins) said it was clear that some electricity had been taken, even though the defendant had only been charged with attempted theft. “We can only speculate exactly how much he benefited from it,” he said. Mr Higgins submitted that

probation, with a term of community work, would be a suitable sentence for Kinsman to make amends for a cunning sort of crime. The Magistrate said that Kinsman was described in his reports as a veteran offender who had, however recently appeared less frequently before the Court. A sentence of periodic detention was inappropriate, as three of the charges were punishable by fines only, and Kinsman was not in a position to pay fines, he said. He accordingly convicted and discharged Kinsman on the three charges brought under the Electricians Act. “It is with some reservation that I am leaving you in the community. Notwithstanding the fact that you are charged with attempting to steal electricity, I am concerned that in May and December, 1975, you actually did steal electricity and gas,” the Magistrate said.

On those dates, Kinsman had circumvented the disconnection of__these services by by-passing” the meters and obviously, he was using the gas and electricity at his home, he said. This almost amounted to fraud.