5 Zeelugt Squatting Area residents to be charged with electricity theft

Following a loss reduction exercise at Zeelugt Squatting Area, Eank Bank Essequibo (EBE), the Guyana Power and Light (GPL) removed several illegal connections, and five persons were arrested.
These five persons are expected to be charged by the Police as stipulated in the Electricity Sector Reform Act, the power company related in a statement on Friday.
GPL said it has noted with concern the blatant disrespect for life and property by persons who engage in this unsafe and illegal practice, highlighting that the company continues to incur millions of dollars in revenue loss as a result of electricity theft.
To curb this dangerous practice, a team from GPL conducted a loss reduction exercise in Zeelugt Squatting Area on September 7 and 9, with support from the Guyana Police Force (GPF). This exercise resulted in the removal of illegal connections and five persons being arrested.
According to GPL, most recently on September 3, two teenagers were severely injured from electrical shocks when they came into contact with an illegal connection at Phoenix Park Sea Dam Squatting Area, West Bank Demerara (WBD).
The company revealed that the teenagers were returning home from the area when one of them came into contact with a live illegally connected cable. Fortunately, they were assisted by public-spirited persons who rushed them to the West Demerara Hospital, where they were treated.
Additionally, GPL recalled that in December 2022, a couple was electrocuted after stepping on illegal connections along an alleyway in the Success Squatting Area. Dead are 32-year-old Sorojanie Hansraj, who was a nurse at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC), and her husband Prahalad Jagnarine, 39, a taxi driver.
The power company expressed that it intends to continue its efforts to ensure that persons stealing electricity are arrested, charged, and brought before the courts for this dangerous and illegal act.
The Electricity Sector Reform Act provides for the regular, efficient, coordinated and economical supply of electricity and for matters incidental thereto or connected therewith.
Under this Act, a person who generates, stores, transmits, transforms, distributes, furnishes, sells, resells, or otherwise supplies electricity to any other person, premises or area shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable upon summary conviction to a fine of $1M and imprisonment for six months.
The Act further stipulates that if the offence of which he/she is convicted continues after conviction, he/she shall be guilty of a further offence and liable to a fine of $50,000 for every day on which the offence is continued.
Added to this, it says that the subject Minister shall take such steps and employ such persons as may be necessary to forcibly or otherwise enter upon, seize, take possession and cease the operations of any works utilised by such person for the unauthorised generation, storage, transmission, transformation, distribution, furnishing, sale, resale or other supply of electricity.
Any person who lays down any electric line or apparatus or constructs any electrical installation outside the area or premises in or on which it is authorised to supply electricity by a licence or an exemption granted pursuant to this Act shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable upon summary conviction to a fine of $500,000, according to the Electricity Reform Act.
And if the offence of which he/she is convicted is continued after conviction, he shall be guilty of a further offence and liable to a fine of thirty thousand dollars for every day on which the offence is continued.
The theft of electricity continues to cost GPL millions of dollars every year. Thousands of people, mostly in depressed communities and squatting areas, climb utility poles and attach wires to GPL’s network while many of them tamper with meters to decrease their actual energy consumption.
GPL has warned that placing energised wires on roadways, over trenches, dams and other places can cause electrocution and death of people and animals. As such, persons are being urged to report electricity theft on 225-5251 and 226-2600.