NEWS & UPDATES
Massage Parlour At Commercial Centre Caught Stealing Electricity
KUCHING, 4th December 2015 – A massage parlour located at a commercial centre on Jalan Setia Raja was caught stealing electricity by a SESCO meter inspection team during a routine operation last week. The power theft was discovered during a routine inspection by the utility targeting high risk customers which includes massage parlours, pubs and online gambling centres.
A SESCO spokesperson said that the massage parlour has other branches at Jalan Lapangan Terbang Baru, Jalan Tun Jugah and Jalan Kuching Serian. All the branches have had a history of meter tampering. This particular outlet occupied all 4-storeys of the shoplot building with the top floor used as workers’ quarters.
The fully air-conditioned massage parlour is connected via 4 SESCO meters. During the operation, the SESCO meter inspection teams found that out of the 4 meters installed, one was found tampered with while the remaining 3 meters were found to have bypassed the meters by illegal direct connections. Energy consumed was not being registered by the meters causing the monthly electricity bills to be suspiciously low for such a large commercial operation.
The SESCO spokesperson added, “During the inspection, it was discovered that the massage parlour was also operating an online gambling venture causing the loading measured during the inspection to be very high. The loss of revenue incurred by SESCO from the tampering act shall be recovered from the customer via arrears billing. A police report has also been lodged for further investigation and legal action will commence against the business operator.”
SESCO would like to remind the public that SESCO is going all out against power theft, focusing on high risk and repeated tampering customers. If caught, the customer will be charged under Section 33 (5) of the Electricity Ordinance which carries a penalty of RM100,000.00 and or five years imprisonment.
Those who have power theft information are encouraged to report to the SESCO power theft hotline at 082-44 35 35 or email customercare@sarawakenergy.com.my. All information will be kept strictly confidential.
