Police arrest electrician over power theft
A 45-year-old electrician has been arrested for allegedly possessing an Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) master card which he uses to feed the prepaid meters of power consumers without authority.
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The suspect, Emmanuel Yirenkyi, was arrested after the company had tracked his activities for more than three years when it discovered that some people had prepaid meters which were not installed by the company, while others had power on their meters but the source could not be ascertained.
When the dust finally settled, officials of the ECG investigations unit, with the collaboration of the Ministries District Police, found the suspect with 14 used ECG prepaid meter cards and an unspecified quantity of meter set-up forms.
Other items retrieved from him were five ECG meter seals, a number of electrical tools and ECG customer summons forms.
Arrest
A source close to the ECG told the Daily Graphic that luck eluded Yirenkyi during a field visit by officials of the Loss and Control Unit of the ECG in the Korle Bu District.
The team realised that the amount of power credited to the meter of a customer in the area was unusual, since her last purchase and the amount of power on her meter did not match.
It said when the customer was questioned, she said she paid GH¢100 to Yirenkyi, who credited her meter with GH¢200 worth of power.
The team is said to have reported the incident to the Investigations Unit of the ECG, leading to Yirenkyi’s arrest three days later.
Yirenkyi was later handed over to the Ministries Police Station.
Further investigations
Further investigations established that on February 4 and May 23, 2016, Yirenkyi used the master card to load power worth about GH¢1,000 on prepaid meters in two houses.
It was also found that one person whose meter was installed by Yirenkyi had GH¢910 worth of power on the meter, even though records at the ECG indicated that the last time she bought power was on September 30, 2014.
For another person whose last purchase of power was GH¢10 on January 2, 2015, the team found that the meter was loaded with GHc976 worth of power.
The two persons, during interrogation, admitted that the power was supplied by Yirenkyi.
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