TAMPERING WITH METER

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5293, 29 June 1928, Page 4

TAMPERING WITH METER

LSE MADE OF LEAD PIPING.

A DUNEDIN PROSECUTION.

The hard struggle of a married man with -six children against an adverse fate was told at the Police Coui-t. Dunedin, on Friday, when Clarence Lowe was charged with tampering with a, gas meter, the property of the Duucd:n City Corporation. Accused was represented by Mr White, and pleaded guilty. Mr .Barrowclough appeared for the Corporation, and said that the contrivance (produced), made up of lead piping, hat] been used' to prevent the meter from recording the g,as; used. It had been found in defendant’s, house by one of the Corporation meter readers. When interviewed! the defendant said he had put it there only the previous night, as he urgently wanted gas. On .investigation it was found that the defendant was in rather an. unfortunate position with the gas department. He hat] been in a house- in King Street and left without paying the money he owed for gas. He had owed money for gas at his present house, but the department had installed a shilling-in-tbe-slot meter, and regulated it so that he would giet slightly less for his shilling than other consumers., -o that gradually, he would pay off the amount owing. Tlie contrivance must have been installed for at least a month. An information could have been la.idi cliarg,ing the- defendant with the theft of gas.

“There seems to be something rad 1 '- | eally wiong with the gas system in the house,” said Mr White, who pointed out that the defendant’s gas bill for two months amounted to £4. The defendant was a married man with six children, ranging- in agp from four months to six years, and the Corporation hat], adopted the somewhat Shylock.like system of inserting a meter which gave him only a portion of the gas he was paying for. On the- night of the offence the defendant did not have a. shilling in the place, and as he wished to give the children some hot food lie foolishly fixed- up an arrangement to get the gas. Mr Barrowclough said it was ridiculous to suggest that the system of collecting the money was a Shyloek system when it was adopted all over the world. As a matter of fa.ct. defendant’s wife had- been seen boiling clotlies in a copper with the use of gas,. •Mr Wh'te said that many strictly honest people seemed to. think it legitimate -to cheat the Corporation in tlie way suggested in the present case. Defendant was convicted and fined the amount of the costs, £1 Ils. A month was allowed for payment.

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