The Kpando Circuit Court on Friday sentenced Maxwell Boateng, an electrician, to a seven-year hard labour jail term, for posing as a worker of the Power Distribution Services (PDS), selling and installing fake electricity meters for defaulting customers of the service.

He pleaded guilty to fraudulent breach of trust.

The court presided by Nana Brew, was told that Boateng, 35, who claimed to be a meter reader of the PDS, succeeded in defrauding at least 16 households of exorbitant amounts.

According to the prosecution, accused was assigned by a private contractor to replace faulty meters in Kpando, but he decided to sell them to unsuspecting customers.

The court was told after his arrest, Boateng conducted the police round the various locations where he installed the meters for fees.

The prosecution stated that the fake meters were discovered by personnel of the PDS on their routine monitoring exercise.

The PDS officials found that the meters were “alien” to the system and, therefore, reported the matter to the police who acted swiftly and arrested the suspect, the court heard.

Meanwhile the Kpando District Manager of the PDS, Mrs PhanneyAdiko, has warned that the service would deal swiftly and ruthlessly with fake meter readers, whose criminal conducts were undermining the smooth operations of the service.

She entreated the public to assist the service to get rid of such criminals by reporting their misconduct to the police or PDS without delay.

Mrs Adiko cautioned customers of PDS not to entertain any meter reader, who did not hold a valid identity from the service.

The Volta Regional Manager of the PDS, Mr Delali Oklu, has said that there were growing reports of “strange” meter installations in other parts of the region, adding that the service had embarked on an exercise to nab the culprits and prosecute them.