> It’s adding **up to £50 per bill** – a total of up to £1.4 billion to what law-abiding customers pay.
> There’s been a **55% rise in meter tampering** as thieves aim to avoid paying for their power supplies.
Shouldn’t energy companies monitor the power consumption and flag any premises where there is unexpected increase in the usage. Especially now that most of them have smart meters it shouldn’t be that difficult.
SpeedWobbles87 on
Maybe if our gas prices weren’t among the highest in the world this wouldn’t be happening 🤔
Lammtarra95 on
Funny thing is that just last week I heard a sparky reminiscing about his criminal past when he’d bypass a meter for £500. The details of drilling holes and pulling cables passed me by, although I remember he wore gloves to leave no fingerprints.
They will blame anyone for the high prices. This is a lie. Blame Putin, blame global prices, blame the poor. Do you honestly believe if this stopped tomorrow that bills would be lowered?
Ninjapharm on
How do they steal this gas and electricity?
Asking for a friend.
Quick-Albatross-9204 on
So I am curious when they catch someone and make them pay it back, peoples bills go down?
UCthrowaway78404 on
For soeone in the know. It’s stupidly easy to do. It’s just a matter of fitting bypass pipes around the meter.
The meter is ususally inside the house, and the gas man needs permission to access. They can get their dodgy gas guyy to come and reverse the bypass if they REAALLY need to come into the property for work on the gas meter. They will have clues, no doubt – from fresh work that has been done to the pipe, but they can only suspect it’s not going to be solid evidence in court.
With modern meters there are a bit more senstive to the gas pressure from the supply pipe and can detect and report “odd” incoming pressures.
I’m not sure if it’s done so much in domestic settings, but commercial kitchens would for sure gain HUGELY from doing this. They have thousnads of pounds gas bill every month.
Mammoth-Ad-562 on
Multiple things wrong with this article.
1. That figure at current prices, means there is 5.9 giga watts of electricity (using electricity as the calculator) being stolen, however there is no indication as to what they mean when they say ‘per bill’. Is it monthly bill, yearly? If it’s monthly then I would say that is a ridiculous figure, if it’s yearly then I would say that is more likely reliable but £50 a year isn’t exactly extortionate when you consider you’re paying 25p a day just to have a meter.
2. The notion that someone stealing from an energy supplier should mean that we all have to pay for their crime. This really annoys me. If there has been a criminal act of theft against these companies, why can’t they just get a crime number and claim on their insurance like the rest of us? Why have we accepted that commercially, we will all pay so businesses can recover cost? Imagine having your house burgled and telling your neighbours that they’ll all have to chip in to replace the stuff that has been stolen.
darkmatters2501 on
It’s nothing compared to how much the energy companies are ripping us off !
XenorVernix on
I do wonder just how much of my energy bill I’m paying for other people’s energy usage. There’s this £50 here, and then there’s the standing charge which has an element that covers unpaid bills and bailouts. It’s scaldalous. They can take my money for this without asking and yet if I were to take their service for free I’d be a criminal.
Boogaaa on
Ah, so we should be angry at a small number of people stealing energy instead of the government for not cracking down on rampant profiteering within these energy companies. The classic “Hate the scroungers, not the failing of government” argument.
Delicious_Opposite55 on
The headline makes it sound like people are robbing my electricity. The article itself seems to be about people bypassing their meters to get free electricity. Not quite the same.
PS fuck octopus energy
gymdaddy9 on
Not forgetting, there’s also a charge on your utility bill for those that don’t pay as well, so we end up paying for them as well
WanderingLemon25 on
One of my mates has a grow going from tapped energy, how the fuck he isn’t caught yet I don’t know but apparently it was piss easy to sort and only cost £500.
15 Comments
> It’s adding **up to £50 per bill** – a total of up to £1.4 billion to what law-abiding customers pay.
> There’s been a **55% rise in meter tampering** as thieves aim to avoid paying for their power supplies.
Shouldn’t energy companies monitor the power consumption and flag any premises where there is unexpected increase in the usage. Especially now that most of them have smart meters it shouldn’t be that difficult.
Maybe if our gas prices weren’t among the highest in the world this wouldn’t be happening 🤔
Funny thing is that just last week I heard a sparky reminiscing about his criminal past when he’d bypass a meter for £500. The details of drilling holes and pulling cables passed me by, although I remember he wore gloves to leave no fingerprints.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5p-YQkbe_s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5p-YQkbe_s)
HELLO MR GAS MAN!
They will blame anyone for the high prices. This is a lie. Blame Putin, blame global prices, blame the poor. Do you honestly believe if this stopped tomorrow that bills would be lowered?
How do they steal this gas and electricity?
Asking for a friend.
So I am curious when they catch someone and make them pay it back, peoples bills go down?
For soeone in the know. It’s stupidly easy to do. It’s just a matter of fitting bypass pipes around the meter.
The meter is ususally inside the house, and the gas man needs permission to access. They can get their dodgy gas guyy to come and reverse the bypass if they REAALLY need to come into the property for work on the gas meter. They will have clues, no doubt – from fresh work that has been done to the pipe, but they can only suspect it’s not going to be solid evidence in court.
With modern meters there are a bit more senstive to the gas pressure from the supply pipe and can detect and report “odd” incoming pressures.
I’m not sure if it’s done so much in domestic settings, but commercial kitchens would for sure gain HUGELY from doing this. They have thousnads of pounds gas bill every month.
Multiple things wrong with this article.
1. That figure at current prices, means there is 5.9 giga watts of electricity (using electricity as the calculator) being stolen, however there is no indication as to what they mean when they say ‘per bill’. Is it monthly bill, yearly? If it’s monthly then I would say that is a ridiculous figure, if it’s yearly then I would say that is more likely reliable but £50 a year isn’t exactly extortionate when you consider you’re paying 25p a day just to have a meter.
2. The notion that someone stealing from an energy supplier should mean that we all have to pay for their crime. This really annoys me. If there has been a criminal act of theft against these companies, why can’t they just get a crime number and claim on their insurance like the rest of us? Why have we accepted that commercially, we will all pay so businesses can recover cost? Imagine having your house burgled and telling your neighbours that they’ll all have to chip in to replace the stuff that has been stolen.
It’s nothing compared to how much the energy companies are ripping us off !
I do wonder just how much of my energy bill I’m paying for other people’s energy usage. There’s this £50 here, and then there’s the standing charge which has an element that covers unpaid bills and bailouts. It’s scaldalous. They can take my money for this without asking and yet if I were to take their service for free I’d be a criminal.
Ah, so we should be angry at a small number of people stealing energy instead of the government for not cracking down on rampant profiteering within these energy companies. The classic “Hate the scroungers, not the failing of government” argument.
The headline makes it sound like people are robbing my electricity. The article itself seems to be about people bypassing their meters to get free electricity. Not quite the same.
PS fuck octopus energy
Not forgetting, there’s also a charge on your utility bill for those that don’t pay as well, so we end up paying for them as well
One of my mates has a grow going from tapped energy, how the fuck he isn’t caught yet I don’t know but apparently it was piss easy to sort and only cost £500.