“BY-PASS FRAUD.”

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16542, 28 September 1921, Page 7

“BY-PASS FRAUD.”

ALLEGED 6ASMETER OFFENCE. A BOARDING-HOUSE INCIDENT. At the Magistrate’s Court this morn”*B, before Air Wyvern Wilson, S.M., F. A. Close and R. L. Pepper were charged with operating the 4 ‘ by-pass gas meter fraud.” Tlie charge against Close was that) he stole gas valued at 9s 2d from the company; also that ho tampered with bis meter with intention to defraud, and attempted to steal gas. Accused pleaded not guilty. Air O. T. J. Alpers appeared for the Christchurch Gas Company and Mr C. S. Thomas for the accused. Mr Alpers said that that class of case recurred periodically, and was known as “ tho by-pass fraud.” By means of the fraud a consumer of gas, in order to evade payment for it, disconnected the pipe which joined tho intake from the street to the meter and the pipe from the meter into tlie house, and then used a piece of rubber tubing so as to cause the gas to pass direct from the mains into the house without going through tlie meter and being charged for. Close was the owner of a boarding-house in Antigua Street, and his daily gas consumption from August, 1920, to July, 1921, varied from 300 ft to 190 ft. Suddenly, after July, the rocorded consumption dropped. The drop was so sudden that the lengthening of the days could not solely account for it. Servants of the complainant company who visited the house found that the meter, which was a slot machine, registered the same on two occasions with an interval of two days between them, despite tlio fact that ga3 had been used in the house in the interim. This showed that no gas had passed through the meter. Close told the gasmen that he had been shutting off the meter to check consumption. A young man named Moore apjieared in the hall and slipped in through a doorway into a. room adjoining in which tho meter stood. When the gasmen moved forward to enter the room Close said, “ You can’t go in there. He is changing!” They waited, and heard suspicious noises in the room. The gas went out. Before the light wont out a candle had been taken into a room on the other side of the passage, and when the gas went out the people in tho room went on working by candlelight. The gasmen tried the door through which Moore had gone, and found it locked. One of the gasmen slipped outside and saw through a window two men in tlie room in which the meter was. One of them was walking up and down, stamping and whistling. The other was crouching by the meter box, working by the light of a candle, and it could be seen from the motion of his arms that lie was using a screw wrench. The gasmen slipped back and found the hall door locked, but they got in through a side window. After about fifteen minutes the gas came on again. The door of the room containing tlie meter was unlocked, and Moore came out. He had not changed his clothes. They accused him of tampering with tho meter, but ho said no ono had touched it. "Walter Ernest Rodgers, accountant of the Christchurch Gas Company, said that on account of Close failing to pay bis gas accounts a pre-payment meter was introduced into his house. He gave details of gas consumption by Close.

Albert William Price, a gas inspector employed bv the complainant company, described his visit to accused’s house.

Air Thomas: These wonderful pieces of mechanism which your company instate, have they ever been known to fail to register? Witness : They never oyer-register. They sometimes under-register. Air Thomas: The one that underregisters should be put up on a memo tablet in your office J Do you think it likely that this young man would risk a term out at Paparua merely in order to give Mr Close cheap gas"? “ I suppose the days were when the gods were young, and you used to put up your foot on a chair to clean vour boots before going out to see your best girl? ” asked Mr Thomas, in the course of Inter cross-examination. . Witness refused to entertain a suggestion that this accounted for the attitude in which Moore had been seen in the room. Herbert Ernest Higgleston, chief meter clerk of the Christchurch Gas Company, said he accompanied Price to I Close’s house on August 25. He corroborated his evidence. “ My friend certainly has shown that something requires answering, but he has not shown that my client is in any way connected with the alleged theft,” :-«iid Mr Thomas. There was not the slightest evidence against Close. The onus was on the prosecution of proving Close guilty of the theft, bevond all reasonable doubt. Wliat was the ■ arrangement in Close’s boarding house? j It had not been shown that Close was even responsible foi- control of the meter. It might be an apartment house. r l ho Magistrate said lie considered a case had been proved. Close was responsible for control of the meter. Mr Thomas said he hoped that Moore would in no way be confused with Ins client. When Moore went into the house ho found that the range was working badly. He remedied the do feet, but found that on account of indiscriminate use by tho boarders the gas bill was not going down jus it should. He then decided to turn off the meter at certain times to check tho j consumption. Ho suggested that Price ! was a sleuthound out, to serve his company, although, ho said, they all knew him to be an honourable man. The | story regarding Moore sitting with a j lighted candle by tlie meter adjusting | the pipe was absurd, because of the i risk of explosion. i Mr Thomas said that Close would deny the allegations against him. No evidence had been given as to how 1 liealleged “ by-pass ” found had boon worked. Was it likely that a. man would open a gaspipe with a naked light beside him ? The Magistrate: What was to prevent- Close going outside and turning off the supply? Price stated to the Court that it was possible to turn off the main supply by the meter. Moore, a young man. denied having tampered with the gas in Close’s house Ho was whistling in his room ontthe occasion of the gasmen’s visit, because he was “ a happy sort of I>eing.” Never during the time he had been in the room had a spanner been laid on the meter Mr Alpers: Did you walk up and down in the room P Witness: Well, I might have walked from one end of the room to the other to get a. pair of boots, and then come back again. Mr Alpers: You would be in your stockinged feet thou. wouldn't, you ? If * anyone else, was hr the room with you, it was a spook, l suppose? \Virn-. V.- If anvom was there

it was without my knowledge, and that is unlikely. “ I don’t believe tho evidence for the defence at all,” said tho Magistrate. te I dn’t believe that the motor was turned off at 10.30 p.m. and that the young man went into tlie room to clean his hoots. I think ho was working in the room at the meter. I believe that Close knew all about, it—that he had gone in to fix the meter and told a li© in order to keep the door shut. He did not think the inspectors would go outside and look through the window. Tlie gas consumption at accused’s house had fallen enormously, and he was quite unable to account for that reduction. It could fairly be assumed from tho evidence that the consumption of gas in the house had been fairly regular, and that at least a thousand feet of gas had been used and not paid for. Close had been a party to it. He must be convicted of theft. Tlie minor charge would be dismissed.

“I don’t intend to,impose imprisonment, although it is a particularly mean offence,” concluded the 'Magistrate. “ Further, it is a difficult one to detect. However, in view of the fact that tho man’s record is not bad, I will merely inflict a fmo of £lO and costs.” Subsequently Mr Thomas asked that his client should be given time to pay the fine. Tlio Magistrate refused the application.

Similar charges were preferred against Pepper. Mr Alpers said that Pepper’s case was of a different nature. Ho was a young man. “baching” at New Brighton, and had been quite. frank about using the “ by-pass.” He said he had been iising it only a few days, and the company was quite ready to believe that.

Pepper said he changed over the pipes because the gas supply was poor. Tlie Magistrate said ho thought the young man had yielded to a sudden idea that camo into his head while lie was out of employment. He would be fined £5, and ordered to pay costs. Popper applied to have his name withheld from publication. The Magistrate declined to make the order, saying that if he wished to preserve tlie family good name he. should have thought of it before. Cases of tho kind required the fullest publication in order that thev might act as a deterrent to tlie public.

Pepper was given a month in which to pay the fine.