'It would be well lit up' - Cork pub given a year to pay €80k bill from tampered electricity meter

ESB Networks said the interference with the meter "would have been carried out by a skilled person"

The pub had 357,000 units of free electricity equivalent to €80,000.

€80,000 of free electricity was used by a pub in Cork city and as it was being clarified in court precisely where the pub is located the sentencing judge remarked: “It would be well lit up.” 

The case against Waxy O’Connor’s of Marlboro Street, Cork, was being heard at Cork Circuit Criminal Court when there was some discussion between the parties about where exactly on the street the pub was located.

Judge Seán Ó Donnabháin remarked: “If you passed it, it would be well lit up.” Catherine Walsh of ESB Networks said: “I asked the local ESB technician to call out to Marlboro Street to check the possible interference and he indicated that there was interference with a three-phase meter where two phase meters were being bypassed. So the full amount was being used but only billed for one third.

“It (the interference with the meter) would have been carried out by a skilled person.” Ms Walsh said that by looking at the bills it was established that the relevant amount from the point of view of the case was 357,000 units with a monetary value of €80,000.

Apart from the monetary loss, Ms Walsh said there was a health and safety issue in so far as members of the public could come in physical contact with a meter that had been interfered with by an unauthorised person.

Judge Ó Donnabháin said the issue had gone undetected from 2013 to 2020 and “despite concerns of the ESB it did not overheat.” Defence barrister Brian Leahy said arrangements were being made on behalf of the defendant company running Waxy O’Connor’s to repay the relevant authority which is Bord Gais over the next three years.

Mr Leahy BL said the last remaining director, now dealing with the matter, had no involvement in this offence but was now trying to run the business.

Judge Ó Donnabháin said: “I will adjourn this matter on condition that the company come to terms with Bord Gais for the entire repayment.” Sentencing was adjourned for over a year until October 28, 2022.

Guilty pleas were previously admitted on behalf of Waxy O’Connor’s Limited that they did, on a date unknown between November 27, 2012, and January 31, 2014, at the licensed premises on Marlboro Street, Cork, unlawfully interfere with an electricity meter owned or operated by the Electricity Supply Board.

The second count was of failing to take steps to discontinue an under-registering of electricity, again contrary to the Energy (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2012. 

The particulars state that Waxy O’Connor’s Limited did between January 31, 2014, and January 21, 2019, being a registered consumer of electricity and having reasonable grounds for believing that an electricity meter was not duly registering the quantity of electricity being supplied to its premises, by reason of the electricity meter being interfered with, did fail to take all reasonable steps that such interference was discontinued.