Thou shall not steal .... except when electriciity is involved

In English law you cannot steal electricity as it is not a tangible thing in the same way you cannot steal land as you cannot move it, you can however steal soil and rocks.

For this reason Section 13 of the Theft Act made an offence of abstraction and unlawfully causing to be wasted electricity. 

JP

I'm surprised the meter tails are hidden behind boards to be honest.  I'd have expected some sort of  'plain sight' requirement ,as  the cable before the meter is an easier attack vector than the meter itself.

Mind you funny things happen in the UK too.
Mike.

I doubt that abstraction in the UK is yet on the scale seen in South Africa  but it seems to be increasing. I have found a few cases and am regularly asked how to do it.

Not far from me there is a group of general purpose malcontents who are actively encouraging abstraction. A worrying number of locals seem to regard them as "heroes, helping out struggling families" and not as criminals.

And I have met a few people, mainly older people, who seem unclear as to the difference between legitimate energy saving, and abstraction.

In addition to the well known techniques of tampering with the meter or the meter tails, a growing problem is gangs who dig up the road and live joint a new service cable which is terminated in the premises to a standard type of cut out and meter. Because the meter is a fleabay special it is on no database, and never read, so no bill is ever rendered for the illegal second service. This is more applicable to small and dodgy businesses than to households.

Many older business premises have more than one meter, often in different locations and read by different suppliers.

I have also found many cases of what might be called "inadvertent abstraction" in which electricity has been obtained without payment, but without any question of personal gain.

One case was a block of flats with a meter for each flat, and also another meter for the lighting of the common parts. The common parts meter was in a locked cupboard and had never been read since the building of the flats DECADES before.

Another case was an external illuminated sign connected to a street light mounted on the front of the same building. A large and reputable company, with no question of personal gain. It was probably done like that to save time and materials.

Another case was an external illuminated sign connected to a street light mounted on the front of the same building.

Could be legitimate - a lot of bill board lighting is done similarly around here. Even though it's owned by a private company it's wired direct to the mains umetered, like street lighting. It's then paid for by licence presuming a fixed consumption (over  year).

   - Andy.

The illuminated sign to which I referred MIGHT have been legitimate but I doubt it.

And even if it WAS legit, there is a lot of criminal abstraction. Those doing the deed are increasingly regarded as "heroes for helping out struggling families" and not as criminals.

I consider that civil disorder over energy prices is probable this winter.

I have witnessed a new connection being made to the network, that I very strongly suspect was for an illegal unmetered supply. I tried to report it to both the DNO and to the police, but no one was interested.

broadgage said:

I consider that civil disorder over energy prices is probable this winter.

I'd certainly accept that it is possible.

I can cope with a 3 times rise, but several £thousands disappearing for nothing in return is pretty galling.

If you are one of Mrs May's JAMs (just about managing), it must be pretty frightening.

And as well as ill feeling over rising energy prices, there are those who like a good riot/fight. It is several years since the last large scale riots in the UK, and some are no doubt looking forward to the next lot. I expect that sports shoes and portable electronics will be the main targets of the looters.

And BTW, the under the old "riot damages act" the police had to compensate the owners of property "destroyed, stolen, or damaged" in a riot. This was repealed a few years ago, allegedly because a bad riot could bankrupt the police.