SIBU: Close surveillance on power theft activities by Sarawak Energy’s utility arm, Syarikat Sesco Berhad (Sesco) recently led to another success.
This time, the alleged offences involved a local supermarket chain in Ulu Sungai Merah and Sibu Jaya.
After obtaining a search warrant from the Magistrate’s Court, its enforcement team, comprising Sesco’s technicians and auxiliary police, conducted a raid on the two supermarkets.
They discovered the power meters at both venues had been tampered with.
“They discovered the power meters’ covers and security seals at both venues had been tampered with. These resulted in the meters registering less electricity consumption than the actual consumption in their monthly bills.
Police reports have been lodged for further investigations on both outlets.
All the tampered meters had been sent to the meter laboratory in Kuching for further analysis and as case exhibits.
The supermarket chain which is popular for its super low prices is included in Sesco’s close supervision list for repeated power theft offences, particularly in Sibu, Sarikei, Miri and Bintulu.
“Its outlet in Bintulu has also been discovered stealing power on many occasions over the past few years while its outlet in Sarikei was discovered committing the offence sometime in December last year.
“In Sibu, this is the second offence for both outlets,” a press statement issued by SEB yesterday disclosed.
Sesco has opened investigation papers for all the offences and are working together with the Electrical Inspectorate Unit (EIU) of the Ministry of Utilities and State Attorney General Office (SAG) to prosecute the operators in court.
For previous three offences involving the supermarket outlet in Sarikei, civil claims were filed against the operator and the court ruled in favour of Sesco. The operator was instructed to pay a total of RM199,000 in arrears to Sesco.
Sesco is intensifying its efforts to mitigate the increase of power theft cases especially at commercial premises by doubling its inspections and executive operations throughout the state. It will work closely with the police and EIU.
Stealing electricity is a crime that not only endangers lives but can also damage customers’ electrical appliances and even cause fire to the premises.
Those found guilty of stealing electricity will be charged under Section 33 (5) of the Electricity Ordinance, which carries a penalty of RM100,000 and/or five years’ imprisonment.
Sarawak Energy yesterday reminded the public not to trust any service providers claiming to be able to reduce electricity bills and allowing business owners to enjoy limitless electricity usage.
The service providers are duping business owners into committing a crime where the owners would be held responsible for power theft, it warned.
The power provider also seeks public cooperation to continue reporting suspicious electricity theft activities via its dedicated hotline at 082-443535. All information will be treated strictly confidential.
