Fake ECG meter installer busted

A 54-year-old electrician who has been installing fake meters for Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) customers at Kunsu in the Ahafo Ano South West District of Ashanti region has been arrested by the Abuakwa Police.

John Kofie, was apprehended when the Ashanti Regional Small Business Unit (SBU) monitoring team went to the community to retrieve an amount of GH¢11,000.00 owed by a customer, as part of the nationwide revenue mobilization exercise. 

During an inspection of the customer’s premises, it was detected that the original meter which had accumulated debts had been replaced with a fake one. 

After a marathon interrogation of the customer, he mentioned the name of Kofie as the one who had installed the meter for him. 

Further investigations by the team revealed that the suspect had installed many fake pre-paid meters which were out of the ECG database, to unsuspected ECG customers, resulting in massive illegal connections in the community and its environs. 

He was therefore handed over to the Abuakwa Police in the Atwima Nwabiagya South Municipality for further investigations. A search at the residence of the suspect revealed seven new unauthorized pre-paid meters with fake moratorium documents under his bed. 

A moratorium is a temporary suspension of an activity or law until further consideration warrants lifting the suspension, usually imposed by a government, regulators, or a business. 

When questioned as to how he got those meters, he said, a staff from ECG gave them to him upon negotiations. 

Kofie has since been handed over to the Ashanti Regional Police Command for further investigations to help arrest his other accomplices. 

Mr Kofi Danso, Ashanti Regional Manager in charge of revenue mobilization at the ECG, warned the public to desist from tempering with ECG’s authorized installed meters, otherwise, if they were caught, they would face the full rigours of the law. 

He advised the public to go through the appropriate channels to acquire meters to avoid any implications. Mr Danso told the GNA that, the ECG had so far been able to retrieve about Gh¢50 million in the Ashanti Region alone, in the few weeks of the nationwide revenue mobilization exercise. 

He advised the public to quickly go to the various ECG offices to clear their debts before their power was cut off. 

The Engineer, Mr Danso debunked the public allegations that ECG was short of meters and assured that there were enough meters to serve customers.