Court fines unemployed man GH¢1,200 for stealing power
An unemployed man has been convicted by the District Utility Court in Accra for bypassing the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) meter in his house and stealing more than GH¢1,000 worth of power.
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Isaac Newton Adom, 25, who claims to be a steel bender but is currently unemployed and lives at Ashaley Botwe in Accra, pleaded guilty to two counts of intentionally interfering with the ECG meter and stealing power.
The court, presided over by Mr Wolanyo Kotoku, convicted him on his plea.
He was fined 100 penalty units which translate into GH¢1,200 or he would face two weeks imprisonment. A penalty unit is GH¢12.
Before Adom was sentenced, his lawyer, Mr Theophilus Donkor, prayed the court to temper justice with mercy since the accused person was a first-time offender and had paid the bill given him by the ECG.
He also said the accused person had shown remorse and had not wasted the time of the court by admitting the offence.
Accused’s claim
Prosecuting, the Manager in charge of Prosecutions at the ECG, Mr Paul Assibi Abariga, told the court that Adom claimed his meter had developed a fault some time ago and he had asked an electrician to work on it. He, therefore, suspected that the electrician might have done the bypass.
He said Adom was arrested on January 18, 2016 when some officials of the ECG Revenue Protection Unit in Accra visited the house of the accused person and detected that the meter was not reading the amount of power consumed.
Further investigations by the team, Mr Abariga said, revealed that Adom had bypassed the ECG meter in the house, therefore the meter could not read the power consumed.
The case, he said, was later reported to the police, resulting in Adom’s arrest.
Electrician dead
The team found out during investigations that the said electrician had died about three months ago. A bill of GH¢1,115.45 was given to Adom which he had paid.