A bedsit tenant prosecuted for stealing electricity was so fearful of repeating the offence he has abstained from using any more, a court heard.

Magistrates heard how Dane Ashley Chambers, 22, took advantage of having a broken pay-as-you-go meter in his bedsit, using the same pound coin to pay for electricity for more than four months.

Chambers later told police that the meter in his Norfolk Road bedsit in Penrith had been broken when he moved in but his landlady refuted the claim, saying that it had been in perfect working order.

At Carlisle’s magistrates’ court, Chambers, who still lives at the same address, admitted illegally abstracting electricity.

Prosecutor Julie Hansel said the defendant was living in the property on a six-month tenancy agreement which involved electricity supplied through a pre-payment meter.

During a routine inspection of the property, the landlady discovered that a metal ring on the meter’s coin box had been bent and the padlock that normally secured it was on the floor, broken. 

There was no money inside the meter box and the landlady said for the four-month period involved there should have been between £100 and £150.

The offence happened between November 22 last year and March 28 this year.

Keith Thomas, for Chambers, said the defendant had allowed somebody to stay in the bedsit for a couple of months and that the meter was broken when he returned to the bedsit after spending a short time away.

“The box was broken and the money was gone,” said Mr Thomas.

“He found that a pound could still be put into the meter and then taken out of the box and put in again. He was frank and cooperative with the police.

“He said he used the same pound coin time after time in order to get electricity.” Chambers reckoned he used electricity worth £30 to £40, said Mr Thomas.

The barrister added: “He has not used electricity since the time of his [police] interview in March. He has not even been able to boil a kettle for a cup of tea. He has had to go to buy cups of tea elsewhere.”

Apart from buying teas out, Chambers had instead had only soft drinks and glasses of water, and visited his girlfriend’s house when he wanted to wash, rather than risk using electricity illegally and committing another offence.

District Judge Gerald Chalk fined Chambers, who works as a cleaner, £110 with £85 costs, £40 compensation, and a £35 surcharge.