Welcome back to tool box talk for electricians podcast.

Have you ever been to a property and it took you a few minutes to figure out how the board is fed?

Only to find out it's one of those fuse boards that require FREE electricity?

Yep, its been tampered with and the property has either bridged out the meter, or bypassed it to get free electricity.

It happens, and it's a difficult position to be in.

The customer will never admit they did it.

If you put it back properly - who is to say the customers are just going to do it all again when you leave.

What do you do about it?

Tool Box Talk for electricians - Helping electricians reduce stress, gain back time and earn more money.

Bypassing the meter is going to happen all over, especially now with how much energy prices are going up.

Property owners sometime have no other option to be able to get the heating on or even cook their food.

Getting caught however comes with a hefty fine of up to £2000 and a criminal record, sometimes a 5 year prison sentence.

If an energy supplier finds out you have rigged the meter, they can even refuse to supply you with electricity.

From an electrician's point of view, bypassing the meter isn't dangerous when done properly.

I'm not going to go into details on how to do it properly, I think that would be stupid.

Some of the rigged meters I have come across are basicly fires waiting to happen.

The wrong size cable for the fuse may have been used.

Lets be honest, somebody who is looking to bridge the meter isn't going to go to an electrical wholesalers and ask for a 25mm tails pack.

No, Thay grab any piece of cable or even piece of metal and that will do.

The question is - is it the electricians responsibility to report the rigged meter to the police.

Are you a being a grass?

Further more if you do that, will the customer pay their bill for the work you have done for them?

Its happened to me a few times. The property I was working in had gone to the effort of installing a isolator in the bedroom upstairs.

Then it was off the electricity was paid for, but when they switched it on he had free electricity.

Of course I noticed this and questioned what was going on.

The property had a paid meter, one of those card machines you had to top up.

The customer asked it to be changed by the supplier, but was going to be charged £50.

Turns out he wasn't happy about that and came up with his own solution. It had been like it for 5 years.

I didn't ask how much money he had saved, but he did say he topped up the meter £5 a week.

That was a few years ago now.

The work I carried out was installing a couple of smoke alarms. The customer owned the house and was the person paying - I didn't feel any need to report it to anyone.

If a supplier was come and take a look they wouldn't even know by looking at it.

The customer was a big lad too, so I imagine if i was to report it to the police, there would be repercussions towards me too.

That was a rigged meter that was safe.

I have also come across a supply where a 6mm SWA cable has been connected to the underside of the main fuse in the head!

The only reason I was called was because it had a burnt out neutral.

Absolutely crazy! It was a fire waiting to happen.

I made it very clear that someone could die with what they had done there. They should call western power and just say it's always been like that.

I did say please do it, just so it can be put right and DO NOT let anyone connect any cable into those terminals.

Again they were a lot of big guys around me when looking at it, so there was no chance I was going to call the police on them or report it, my van would have been up in smoke the next day.

There is occasions where I have had to put it back to how it is supposed to be. Doing an EICR on a rented property.

The tennets denied all knowledge of knowing anything. So in order for me to say the install was safe, I put it back to going through the meter.

I didn't write anything down on the report, But did mention it to the landlord.

The way the meter was bridged out, it could have caused a fire - so I had no choice.

Other than the police and western power I wouldn't bother calling the supplier to report a bridged meter.

It would take hours on the phone getting through to the right department, then what would they do about it?

It not like you get an award for being a grass.

Yes it wrong, yes its cheeky to steel electricity when everyone else is paying and extortionate amount - but how can it be stopped?

The introduction of smart meters is something that may help.

The new smart meters have a little switch that sends a signal to say its been opened.

Personally I havent seen this, all the boards I have changed lately have the isolator and there's no need to remove the meter cover.

Reading online some of the smart meter can detect tampering even when the cover hasn't been removed!

I would imagine that because of all the rigged meters across the UK the supplier will be able to issue a fine, just for the tamper alarm going off.

So they are trying to do something about it.

It doesnt stop people asking for it to be done. Some people are aware of how dangerous it can be.

So they ask an electrician, I have been asked before.

£500 each house. I would be given a list of properties all over the UK.

Park my van a few streets away and rig the meter and leave.

The whole thing sounded dodgy to me.

Yeah I could of made 5k in one week, but if I was found out the police would have fined me for all the properties, maybe put me in prison for 5 years ….

Ok so it may be highly unlikely - but it could happen.

So I just laughed and said yeah right! Not going to happen.

Its a tough position to be put in when you see a bypassed meter.

Do you report it?

Who do you report it to?

Or do you turn a blind eye?

I would love to know your thoughts on meter tampering.

What would you do?

Come on over to the tool box talk for electricians group and let me know.

I will leave a link in the shownotes.

Until next time - I will see you again.