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[malcolmfrary]

There was a guy in the pub the other night, who was bragging that his electrical supplier had mistakenly credited him with thousands of pounds, a very unpleasant man. He said had not had a bill for years, unfortunately he didn't say who the supplier was.

Colin

A terrible moral dilemma - find out who the unpleasant git was and bubble him, or let him carry on freeloading off the rest of us.  A bit like watching Chelsea v Arsenal.  You just don't know who to boo loudest.

[Anchorboy46]

I have read this topic with interest fellas. Being from Texas, I can't imagine why youre doing what youre doing. Is electricity and gas really that high in your country? I usually pay 30 U.S. dollars a month for electricity and maybe 15 for gas. The gas is natural gas. It bubbles out of the water here in the Gulf of Mexico naturally. We have an over abundant supply of it. Escapes from the ground too. Our power companies charge us pennies for it to be piped into our homes. With temps here in Texas quite warm in the summer months, we only use the gas to cook with. Our water heaters and gas dryers aren't needed since it is so warm we dry our clothes on the line. Water is relatively warm for showers or baths. Electricity is so cheap here. I usually leave the T.V. and puter on all day.
 Gasoline for our cars and trucks is about 2.50 USD per gallon right now. I dunno why people are looking for ways to swipe power. What we are concerned with here in U.S. is how to make power without polluting the sky and water. I look to solar, windmills and nuke.
 Is U.K. really hurting that bad? We are suffering with our present administration trying to  convert to socialism which is going to be his demise. He is going to be ousted. He will only do one term. He turned out not to represent the people. He is for big government- Anchorboy

[gondolier88]

Hi Anchorboy,

I'm not going to go into prices, thats what Google's for, but here in GB we get Charged, or should that be CHARGED for our services!

Greg

[craftysod]

No we get ripped off.
Tax on everything

[barryfoote]

Anchorboy,

Well here in Spain we pay at least 3times what you do for Electricity and more than double for petrol (Gas).

Oh and we are quite a bit cheaper than the UK...

[Jimmy James]

 <*<30 years ago I had the gas turned off and the meter removed  8 years later I returned home from a 6 month trip to the South Atlantic to find my wife in a right tiz, and a court summons for nonpayment of gas bills and a letter from the gas board saying that they were sending a team to disconnect us 2 days later they turned up with a Bully boy in charge hammering on the door and demanding I open it so they could shut and lock the gas connection. I opened the door and tried to explain we hadn't had gas for for over 8 wears but the Bully Boy wouldn't pay any attention and tried to barge past me into the house so I threw him out...The chap next door came over to see what all the row was about I explained and showed him I had no meter and the docket I had from the gas board saying that saying they had removed the meter and blanked off the pipe... Gill ,the chap next door (Did I mention he was a police inspector) told the gas board gang to go and off they went ... A week later I went to court  and was awarded £520 + expenses and 6 months later I got another gas bill
Freebooter

[wbeedie]

and preay metres pay the most ,dont know why maybe thats why the older card style ones were easy ripped of by cutting the card in half lengthways and inserting both sides ie buy a £5 card and get £10 for it ,used to be a common scam  where I used to stay people were getting these metres just so they could do it ,pity the companies started using key card metres instead

[portside II]

with the old card systems there was a lot of illegal cards circulating near wher we used to live , a £75. card for a £5. was the rate and at xmas the people on low incomes would buy one of these cards and load it into their meter .
In reality all they did was borrow £75. worth of electric for a fiver as the electric Co would check the meter and bill them accordingly , they soon learnd that in the end they had paid £80 for the electric and it was not worth it .
The new key system sounds better, although i dont have one myself now they were a rip off as the charges are well above the standard ones if you pay quaterly.
daz

[Wasyl]

I have read this topic with interest fellas. Being from Texas, I can't imagine why youre doing what youre doing. Is electricity and gas really that high in your country? I usually pay 30 U.S. dollars a month for electricity and maybe 15 for gas. The gas is natural gas. It bubbles out of the water here in the Gulf of Mexico naturally. We have an over abundant supply of it. Escapes from the ground too. Our power companies charge us pennies for it to be piped into our homes. With temps here in Texas quite warm in the summer months, we only use the gas to cook with. Our water heaters and gas dryers aren't needed since it is so warm we dry our clothes on the line. Water is relatively warm for showers or baths. Electricity is so cheap here. I usually leave the T.V. and puter on all day.
 Gasoline for our cars and trucks is about 2.50 USD per gallon right now. I dunno why people are looking for ways to swipe power. What we are concerned with here in U.S. is how to make power without polluting the sky and water. I look to solar, windmills and nuke.
 Is U.K. really hurting that bad? We are suffering with our present administration trying to  convert to socialism which is going to be his demise. He is going to be ousted. He will only do one term. He turned out not to represent the people. He is for big government- Anchorboy

[/quote)

[Wasyl]

Anchorboy,

Well here in Spain we pay at least 3times what you do for Electricity and more than double for petrol (Gas).

Oh and we are quite a bit cheaper than the UK...

Yeah,but you,ve got the currant bun all year round,and all that cheap plonk,

Wullie

[Wasyl]

Anchorboy,

You can,t imagine why some people steal energy,well ,thats,because,from where i,m sitting you are living in the land of plenty,and everything is,according to you Rosy,well my friend,i think you should perhaps look a bit further afield and see what the reat of us are paying,
e.g.  1 gal of petrol = $8 here,yes you,re seeing correctly 8 USD,per gallon,Electricity per month is, for a small house 80 USD per month,gas for small house,45 USD per month,liquid gas for cars 4 USD per gal,and thats just for starters,
Food,if your a steak eater forget about coming here,Fillet steak,32 USD per lb,sirloin 12 USD per lb,the list goes on,welcome to the real world,so the next time you see a price rise,of a few cents on your fuel,food etc ,just spare a thought for "this oil producing nation"Scotland,then you,ll realise how lucky you are,Anchorboy,

Wullie

[StarLocAdhesives/FiveStar]

I dont know about new meters, but the old wheel type that turns round...they can go backwards with a box on them!, i had a freind that sold hundreds of `black boxes` for meters back in the 80s, he got caught in the end, they did work he demonstrated them a few times to me , he sold them for £50 a go

They were very easy to make as well ( this info only given as it doesnt work any more , and to explain maybe how they worked! ), it cant be illegal anymore as they dont work on meters with flashing leds or similar, electronic parts, if someone did use on the led stays lit on the meter afterwards to tell them its been tampered with! , he showed me how to make them one time, before he got a few years in prison for it, im not liable if you kill yourself trying it or get locked up for doing it !

Take a computer powersupply, 240v to 9v , from a zx spectrum or similar ( thats what was used! )

take off the output windings, leaving the ones that connect to the mains supply, cut the plug off leaving a 1 inch stub of blue and of brown wires

Take some very thick solid single core mains wire, 2 pieces a few foot long, put them through the transformer were the 9v windings were, coil them round 1 1/2 times each from each side to join in the center, solder the 2 ends together, then join the brown wire from the 240v side to the center join of the 2 solid core wires
Join another piece of solid core wire and solder it onto the blue wire from the 240v coil

put it in a box

then what you neded to do ( allthough never did as its illegal)

to make meter move backwards, the wire from the blue wire is connected to your gas pipe, to earth it, and the other 2 wires were pushed in behind the red wires to the meter one to each wire

then the meter runs backwards, more electric you use the slower it goes till eventualy it would run forwards, depending on the number of coils round the transformer it goes differemt speeds, in theory!

I have no idea how it works though

[malcolmfrary]

Sounds like the theory for an anti-side tone transformer, as featured in every pre-electronic telephone, only applied to power levels applying an equal or more amplitude opposing phase to the meter winding.  He deserved his time away, not so much for the value of the energy stolen, but for the risk to life and property, not only of the nutjobs who bought it, but to their neighbours.  Add to that the total certainty that he would be caught.  A meter reader was always likely to find some suspicious tackle, and anybody dumb enough to use it would, at some time, forget to hide the evidence.

[sheerline]

Fascinating! The things people will dream up and the lengths to which they will go never fails to surprise me. If only he had applied as much mental energy to something legal, the rewards may have been greater and he would not have wound up in prison.
I suppose if this nation were not so greedy and everything was not such a rip off then these kinds of activities would not take place.
Given the cheapness of power in America, it is obvious that this kind of fiddling comes as a big surprise to them.

[craftysod]

The new electronic meters can be overided.
But the guy who came out and replaced our meter told me how to do it,but was told in such by the boss,
not to even think about it,as she doesnt want to clean up the mess afterwards,me being fried.
Or the fine when we get caught

[gondolier88]

to make meter move backwards, the wire from the blue wire is connected to your gas pipe, to earth it, and the other 2 wires were pushed in behind the red wires to the meter one to each wire

then the meter runs backwards, more electric you use the slower it goes till eventualy it would run forwards, depending on the number of coils round the transformer it goes differemt speeds, in theory!

I have no idea how it works though

I hope there were no gas leaks in these boxes- he could have faced a murder charge too!

New meters can't be safely tampered with, and if anyone did think up a way they still show any tampering when the LED stays on.

and preay metres pay the most ,dont know why maybe thats why the older card style ones were easy ripped of by cutting the card in half lengthways and inserting both sides ie buy a £5 card and get £10 for it ,used to be a common scam  where I used to stay people were getting these metres just so they could do it ,pity the companies started using key card metres instead

Prepayment meters cost more because they are put in by the gas companies 'free' of charge. They have to recoup the cost somehow- so an extra £250 is pre-programmed into the unit cost of the meter per year!

This costing is currently being debated in the Law Courts and is tipped to be abolished as it is a hidden fee.

Greg

[Colin H]

Like Malcolm says they always forget to hide the evidence Back in the 60s when I worked for the gas board we caught no end but one sticks out.

We were sent to a terraced house to repair an over sink heater and called by appointment i.e. they knew we were coming that morning. Imagine my surprise when I went to turn of the gas and found the meter on the cellar floor and a length of bicycle inner tube connecting the inlet and outlet pipes.

The guy got 6 months and so he should he put the whole row of house's at risk.

Colin H.

[portside II]

I did hear a long time ago that if you take your gas meter off and reconnect it the opposit way round it will run backwards ,
how any one would know beats me as the meter would be facing the wall and you would nt be able to see it  .
daz

[Colin H]

Daz, that used to be true with the old bellows style meter but modern meters have a back stop in them to prevent this. The modern prepayment meters also have an anti tamper device that locks the meter out if you don't know what you are doing.

Just a thought but anyone can buy a gas meter for less than £50.

Colin H.

[Wasyl]

I remember these bellows type meters very well,20 odd years ago i knew a guy who used to rent them out,he had  accumulated around a dozen of them from vacant properties that were due for demolition,he charged,£5 for disconnecting the existing one and £5 per month for his,he,d let the punters keep t for about half a quarter,i.e 6 weeks, go back and reconnect the gas boards,and he never got caught,because he made sure the punter never got greedy, to the point of the gas board smelling a rat,so to speak,the logic being , pay for 6 weeks gas get 6 weeks free,it worked every time,and he did it for years,up until the new style meters started to appear,

As for those that say its the poorer people that steal energy,well ,thats not the case all the time,The rich do it as well,
a few years back there was an expose on the TV ,on the,World in Action  programme and it was centred on my home town of Dundee,3 of the cases that spring to mind, are,
1) A franchised car dealer for a well known maker,got caught,an owner of a chain of pubs who had a house worth in excess of 1 million,He tapped into the street lights, and the other was a guy,who owned a Big house, who lived near a  hospital, he tapped into their power supply,(the old adage applies to these guys,the more you,vie got the more you want)
But 2 of the best that i,vie ever heard was,1,this guy bought to old houses with 2 separate supplies of electricity,he knocked them down then built one house,the rest is history,the other is a cracker,
This guy was refurbishing and old apartment,and needed a new supply,the electricity company came,they ran a new cable from the house down to the garden,then the dug a trench to the lane,then they dug down to the mains cable in order to make a connection,but as they were about to make the connection,it started to rain,as it was approx 3.30pm on a Friday, the stopped and said they,d come back on the Monday,over the weekend ,the guy got a friend who worked as a sparky,and he went into the loft of the apartment where the new cable had been routed,and as it was not yet live,he cut into it and fitted an 80amp junction box,and took a spur, off and ran another cable to another fuse board that he,d brought,when the electric guys came back on the Monday, they made the connection in the street,and as the new cable had already been fitted to the existing meter,they had no inkling as to what had been done,Although there was a nail biting episode as they were finishing off,the electricity company engineer came into the apartment, to check the connections at the meter,and he had a device that had 3 lights on it,the guy who owned the apartment,asked the engineer, "whats that for" the engineer,replied,this will tell me if there is a break in the cable,at which point the owner nearly choked,but, the cable passed,
it turned out,that when the guy who fitted the junction box he,d made sure all the connections were tight and no break was detected, that happened, 23 years ago,"thats a lot of electricity,"

Wullie

 

[Roger in France]

........................and all the rest of us pay for the electricity they steal!

Roger in France

[tigertiger]

........................and all the rest of us pay for the electricity they steal!

Roger in France

If you are paying for it, then that must be the electricity being bought from France then.

[gondolier88]

Hi,

A quite common one when people used to have solid fuel back boilers was when people couldn't afford to buy coal, they turned on their house, a bit before my time, but my boss has loads of stories working for the gas board in leeds in the 60's- the amount of houses where there would be no floorboards upstairs or down, just a walkway through- or there would be no bannister and handrail etc.

One story was of a family of 'travellers' who had a small garden so kept their horse in the front room- and everything else that went with it!

Then there are the accounts of people who used to run a cable to lamp-posts- just a thin twin and earth running from the lamp-post to their front door, through theletterbox or front window and plugged into the ring main using a three pin plug- supplying the ring mains 'backwards' as it were.

This still goes on!!! One of the housing assosciation's flats I work in had had their electric cut off- so he plugged his flat into the landlords supply in the hallway- meant for the cleaner- then had the cheek to ring up and say his boiler wasn't working! We 'politely' pointed out that they work better with electric to them!

Greg

[tigertiger]

My old neighbour did one on the gas meter.

He disconnected a gas appliance and connected the supply tube to a fish tank pump. At night he would turn on the pump and open the appliance valve. This would pump air back into the gasmain, causing the meter to run backwards.

I am not sure what type of meter he had, this was back in about 2003. He used to do it occassionally.

The only reason I got wise to it was I could hear the knock-knock-knocking of the pump at night and I asked him what it was.

[tigertiger]

Another one was stealing cable TV, before it went digital.

Apart from the frigged cable boxes there was another great story, not sure if it is true.

In Knowle West in Bristol the lifted the inpection cover off the cable manhole. And plugged in thier houses. The cable company then at a later inspection discovered this and cut off the plugs (I believe a co-ax). The thieves then accessed the chamber and replaced the plugs. Next inspection these plugs were cut off, and so on and so forth.

Gradually the cables were getting shorter, this was not sustainable. So the thieves then reconnected, and promptly poured concrete down in the manhole and filled it. End of story, free TV, until digital came along.