POWER STOLEN TO FEED DRUGS CROP
http://www.thisisbristol.com/
11:00 – 06 July 2004
Illegal cannabis production in Bristol is soaring according to gas officials, who claim people are siphoning off power for secret factories. Officials say there is a growing trend of unusually high energy consumption in the city, pointing to an army of illegal growers, who are using “stolen” energy to power bright lamps and heaters to help the plants grow.
British Gas, which also supplies electricity, said its engineers had come across people tapping into their neighbours’ supply and even connecting to street lights to keep their plants alive. Interfering with a meter is the most common method used to get free energy.
As well as Bristol, British Gas said it believed cannabis-growing is taking place in Derby, Manchester, Dagenham near London, and elsewhere in the capital.
Home-grown cannabis is increasingly coming from sophisticated, power-draining hydroponic equipment which produces marijuana indoors without soil, by pumping nutrients directly into plant roots.
Now British Gas has issued a fresh warning about the dangers of stealing gas and electricity, saying tampering with a meter could lead to electrocution, a fire or even an explosion.
The UK Revenue Protection Association estimated that gas and electricity worth £340 million is stolen from UK energy companies every year, with some experts claiming that up to a third is used to produce cannabis illegally.
New figures show that since 2001 police have raided more than 1,840 properties across the UK where cannabis plants were being grown illegally. In total, 157,600lbs of the drug has been confiscated, enough to roll more than eight billion cannabis cigarettes.
Harry Metcalfe, general manager of the investigating unit at British Gas, confirmed the apparent increase in cannabis factories.
He said: “We don’t seem to have come across them in the distant past – it is a new phenomenon for us. It probably takes a lot of energy to keep the place hot enough for the cannabis plants to grow well.
“Gas and electricity theft is now widespread – it is happening in every town in this country.”
Harry Metcalfe, General Manager of the British Gas investigating unit said: “We want to warn people who are stealing gas or electricity that it’s not pot luck whether they’re caught.
“Tampering with your gas or electricity supply is a very dangerous activity which could lead to electrocution or even an explosion. And you don’t have to be a drug baron to be caught.
“We are catching people everyday who decide to fiddle their meter rather than pay like everyone else.”
