A 48-year-old Electrical Technician, Henry Teye Adjirackor, has been sentenced to a fine of GH₵5,400 by an Accra Circuit Court for intentionally and knowingly interfering with the supplier distribution system of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) by installing electrical metre with an unknown serial number at a cost of GH₵600 to a customer without authority.
This followed the reactivation of the utility court by ECG as part of its fight against power theft and other illegalities resulting in the loss of revenue for the power distribution company.
The reactivation of the utility court comes at the back of a six-week amnesty to ECG customers which ended on July 20, 2022, to report all issues with their metres for rectification, and the launch of a revenue protection visibility and metre auditing programme as parts of efforts to protect the revenue streams ECG.
The illegal activities of the convict were uncovered by officials of ECG from Korle-Bu District in Accra who were on their normal exercise of checking on illegal connections and non-functioning metres.
The convict and one Daniel Abban, an electrical engineer have been charged with two counts of conspiracy to steal and stealing of electrical meters belonging to ECG while Henry Teye was separately charged with two counts of intentionally interfering with the supplier distribution system contrary to Rule 41(2) of Electricity Supply and Distribution Rules, 2005 (LI 1816).
He pleaded not guilty to three of the charges but pleaded guilty to the fourth count of intentionally interfering with the supplier distribution system and was convicted on his own plea by the court presided over by His Honour Bright Samuel Acquah.
Henry Teye Adjirackor was sentenced to a fine of GH₵5,400 or in default he would spend 18 months in prison. He was then granted a bail GH₵20,000 with one surety who must be leaving within Accra and earning not less than GH₵1,000 every month in respect of the other three charges. A bench warrant was issued for the arrest of Daniel Abban.
The fact of the case read by Paul Abariga, the General Manager in charge of Investigations and Prosecution for ECG, indicate that officers of ECG in the Korle-Bu District during their routine check disconnected illegally connected and non-functioning metres and the users later mentioned the convict and Daniel Abban as the ones who sold the metres to them at a price ranging between GH₵600 and GH₵700.
The two were arrested by the police and they indicated in their investigation caution statement that the metres sold to them were disposed off at Tema regional branch of ECG and sold to scrap dealers at Agbogbloshie.
Investigations however, revealed that the said metres were stolen and were not from Korle-Bu district and the original metre numbers were covered by another one which the customers used in purchasing power.
“In some instances, the accused persons after selling and installing the stolen metres, they used the details of the new number to activate them for the respective customers,” the facts added.
BY Gibril Abdul Razak