An Accra Circuit Court, presided over by Samuel Bright Acquah, has fined Henry Teye Adjirsckor 450 penalty units, which is equivalent to GH¢5,400, for intentionally interfering or knowingly allowing interference with a supplies distribution system, meters or any other equipment of the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG).
The court further ordered that in the event that Adjirsckor failed to pay the fine, he would be jailed for 18 months. Adjirsckor was sentenced after his guilty plea to the charge last week.
Nonetheless, Adjirsckor pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to commit a crime, stealing, and another count of intentionally interfering or knowingly allowing interference with a supplies distribution system, meters or any other equipment.
The court has granted him bail on the other counts in the sum of GH¢20,000, with one surety. The court further attached to the bail condition that the surety should be a civil servant, who earns not less than GH¢1,000 monthly, and a resident within the court’s jurisdiction.
Prior to the sentence and bail, the court was informed that a staff of ECG was the complainant in the case, and Henry is standing trial with another person called Daniel Abban, an Electrical Engineer. It was said that both accused persons were working with Electro-meters.
According to the brief facts, in June 2022, the complainant, together with other staff of ECG from the Korle-Bu District office, detected while carrying a routine exercises of checking illegal connection and non-function meters, that some meters used by the customers were stolen.
As a result, those meters were disconnected and the users were asked to report at the ECG office, and it was during this that the accused persons were mentioned as their source of supply.
According to the affected customers of the ECG, the meters were sold to them at a price ranging from GH¢650 to GH¢700. The accused persons were indentified and arrested by the police, and in their caution statements both admitted the offence, and stated that the meters sold to the affected ECG customers were disposed off at the Tema Regional branch of ECG, but were sold to scrap dealers at Abgogbloshie.
The court was also told that further investigation revealed that the said meters were stolen, and were not from the Korle-Bu District.
It also came to light that the accused persons, after selling and installing the stolen meters, they used the details of the new numbers to activate them for the respective customers. They were, therefore, charged after investigation and arraigned before the court.
