THEFT OF POWER

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31094, 24 June 1966, Page 8

THEFT OF POWER

Interfered With Meter

By Interfering with the meter in his home a man stole 2230 units of electricity, valued at £l2 14s Id, from the Municipal Electricity Department, Sergeant V. F. Townshend told Mr E. A. Lee, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court yesterday. Ernest George Sheffield, aged 45, a bus driver, who pleaded guilty to stealing the electricity between May 26, 1965, and March 28, 1966, was fined £l5 and was ordered to make restitution of £l2 14s Id.

Sergeant Townshend said on June 1 the general manager of the M.E.D. complained to the police that during the previous 12 months it was suspected that the occupants of a house at 39 Niagara street had been interfering with the kilowatt-hour meter at their house.

Sheffield admitted that as a result of knowledge gained from a fellow worker, whom he declined to name, he found how it was possible to interfere with the meter so that the meter would be by-passed by the electricity. He put this method into operation each week-end with few exceptions between May, 1965, and March, 1966. He estimated that this saved approximately half his account on each occasion.

In explanation Sheffield said he had been very short of money. He had no previous convictions, said Sergeant Townshend. Mr H. J. B. Quigley, for the accused, said Sheffield had been caught because the M.E.D. put a check meter on the power pole. He had bought a new house and was heavily committed.

Sheffield joined the Navy in 1941 and served throughout the war and up to 1964. He was in Korean waters during the war there and was awarded a long service and good conduct medal.

The accused persisted in willful fraud over quite a long period, the Magistrate said.