SASCHA WILSON
A Siparia family of five has been granted $50,000 bail for allegedly stealing electricity from the T&T Electricity Commission (T&TEC). The family appeared in the Siparia Magistrates Court shortly after their arrest on Friday morning. According to the police, they were arrested during an anti-crime exercise in the Quarry Village area between 4 am and 8 am by officers of the Siparia CID, South Western Division Task Force, and T&TEC Estate Police.
The family appeared before a Justice of the Peace where they were granted their own bail and the matter was adjourned to Tuesday. According to the Electricity Act, Chapter 54:70, it is a criminal offence to tamper with the commission’s electricity installations and/or make electrical connections.
T&TEC’s corporate communications manager Annabelle Brasnell could not give any details about the incident because the matter is before the court. However, she said apart from the family, another person was also arrested and charged for the same offence. That person was granted $10,000 bail. Brasnell said, “We carry out regular electricity verification exercises otherwise known as current stealing exercises. We do these with the assistance of the national police so that our estate police will go out with the national police and conduct these exercises and wherever we see an illegal connection we will remove the illegal apparatus and we will arrest the persons.”