Four to pay 5.6 million cedis for illegal tapping of electricity

Techiman (B/A), April 13, GNA - The Techiman Circuit Court has imposed a fine of 5.6 million cedis on four person for illegally tapping electricity from the Volta River Authority (VRA) Northern Electricity Department lines.

They all pleaded guilty and would go to prison for six months if they failed to pay the 1.4 million cedis fine imposed on each of them. The four are Iddrisu Abdulai, Isaac Kofi Korsah, Sulemana Ameyaw Inusah and Vivian Serwaa Owusu, all residents of the Techiman Municipality.

They connected electricity to their houses and illegally consumed about 20 million cedis worth of power.

Prosecuting, Police Chief Inspector Comfort Nyamesah told the Court presided over by Mr Justice Erasmus Gyinae, a High Court Judge sitting as a Circuit Court Judge in Techiman, that the accused persons in February, this year, illegally tapped power to their houses.

Chief Inspector Nyamesah said a team of the Pre-paid Monitoring Section of the VRA on their usual rounds to check illegal power connection in the Techiman Municipality detected the illegal connections.

She said they had wired their houses in such a way as to make the bulk of electricity consumed to by-pass the meter.

Mr Justice Gyinae in sentencing them warned that any person caught engaging in such illegal connections would not be spared by the Court.