THEFT OF ELECTRICITY

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20638, 19 August 1941, Page 2

THEFT OF ELECTRICITY

SIMPLE SYSTEM ADOPTED TARADALE WOMAN FINED A simple device to conceal the use of electricity was described in the Magistrate’s Court, Napier, when Una Seal, a married woman, of Taradale, was charged with the theft of more than 1100 units of electricity, valued at £5 15s 6d, from the Hawke’s BayPower Board. Stating that the method could easily be adopted by anyone who knew of it, the magistrate, Mr. J. Miller, S.M., asked the press not to publish the details. Detective K. Mills told the court that the Hawke’s Bay Power Board, after confidential information that the theft of electricity was going on in Seal’s house, installed a special meter outside to keep a check. When, as a result of the comparison, the police visited the house, the meter showed no sign of having been tampered with, but-the accused frankly admitted the offence and described how she had done it. The magistrate described. the case as a serious matter. A persfcn doing the same thing in a moderate way might never get caught. “I have no power to grant the suppression of the evidence, but I would suggest that the system used in this case should not be described, otherwise a good deal of theft might be experienced,” said Mr. Miller. Had it been the woman’s husband who was before him the penalty would have been imprisonment. He imposed a fine of £lO and ordered the payment of the cost of the electricity stolen, and refused to permit suppression of the accused’s name.