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IDGC of Centre - Kurskenergo division does systematic work to prevent and combat theft of electricity. In the first quarter of this year the power company revealed 117 facts of non-contractual and non-metered consumption. The total amount of stolen electricity amounted to 1.3 million kilowatt-hours (3.6 million rubles in money terms). These figures, for example, correspond to the monthly power consumption of residents of Timsky district of the Kursk region. For today, more than 2.6 million rubles have already been recovered from unscrupulous consumers, the remaining amount is under claim-related work.
"Consumers do all sorts of tricks, sometimes even risking their lives to get "free" kilowatts," says the head of electricity metering department of Kurskenergo Dmitry Zheldakov. Recently, employees of the branch found one entrepreneur from the city of Lgov in the Kursk region with the so-called "charged" meter. The circuit of the metering device had a soldered-in electronic device that allowed to remotely impact the scheme of internal connections of the metering device and greatly underestimate the amount of electricity consumed. On that fact an act of non-metered consumption was made, and then the documents were handed over to the court of Lgovsky District. According to the court decision the offender is obliged to pay a fine of 320 thousand rubles (for comparison: the annual energy consumption of the entrepreneur was 50 – 60 thousand rubles).
Kurskenergo warns that unauthorized (non-metered) use of electricity involves both administrative and criminal liability. According to part 2 of Article 165 of the Criminal Code "Causing damage to property by deception or abuse of trust" is punishable by a fine or imprisonment for up to two years.
The power company addresses to residents of the region asking them not to break the law, not to expose their life and loved people to danger. Please, report all cases of unauthorized connection to the grid at any Distribution Zone, part of the service area of Kurskenergo, or by calling the around the clock free straight line of power engineers at 8 800 50 50 115.