'I fiddled the meter for a mate and the shop burnt down'

An electrician has told the BBC how he set up an illegal meter bypass for a friend's business, only for the shop to burn down weeks later.

He is warning families struggling to pay soaring fuel bills not to "dice with death" to save money, as a BBC investigation reveals energy theft has risen sharply in the cost-of-living crisis.

Tony, not his real name, from Manchester, said: "I've been doing sparking for the last 30 years and what I've seen over the last four or five years is horrendous.

"I do a lot of inspections and come across DIY tampering most days – often in houses where kids are running about. If they put their hands in the board, they're dead."

Tony told the BBC he used to illegally bypass meters for others, working cash in hand because it was "untraceable".

"Anything from an £80 job for families on the breadline needing to fiddle the electric to keep the kids warm, to businesses who just don't want to pay the rates and would happily pay up to £2,000 for me to sort it, to rich people who want the mains spliced to feed their summer houses or hot tubs.

"Demand is as high as it's ever been and I've done my fair share of these jobs. But I won't do it anymore."

The electrician now refuses any off the books requests after one of his tampering jobs went wrong.

"I had an incident where I helped someone out – a functioning business – they needed a quick fix. I fiddled it for them and warned them it needed sorting properly or it could go up.

"Four weeks later the shop burns down."

No one was hurt in the fire and no charges were pressed, but Tony said he now wants more 'sparks' to stop the tampering.

"I turned a blind eye to the risks and the fact it was illegal, but when I look back it weren't worth any money because that scare I had.

"I thought 'wow – this is it, I could go to jail here, lose my missus, my house' and it was all to help a friend in need."

"All I'd say to people who want to rig the meter is don't do it, you're dicing with death.

"And to young electricians out there, don't be tempted for the easy buck, because that's all it is. You're down in the pub with your mates or whatever, you're pleased you've done a quick side job.

"But you've just put a family in jeopardy for a few extra quid. And if it does go wrong - and it does go wrong - you're sat in a cell there doing 20 years, thinking to yourself, was it worth it?"

In 2021, two-year-old George Hinds was asleep when a gas explosion tore through his home in Heysham, Lancashire, killing him instantly.

The blast was caused by a neighbour tampering with a gas meter and cutting through pipes with an angle grinder.

Darren Greenham was jailed for 15 years for manslaughter.

Almost five years on, reports of people bypassing or tampering with the meter – classified as theft and punishable by up to five years in prison or heavy fines – are increasing at an alarming rate.

Figures from Crimestoppers' Stay Energy Safe campaign show the charity received more than 7,100 reports of suspected energy theft in 2021.

By January this year, that number had almost doubled to nearly 13,800.

Crimestoppers estimates that a further 250,000 cases go unreported every year, costing suppliers around £1.5bn annually - an extra £50 a year on to household bills.

Police figures seen by the BBC show that eight of the top ten hotspots for electricity theft are in the north of England.

In 2024-25, West Midlands Police had the most reported cases of 'dishonest use of electricity', at 452, followed by 330 for Greater Manchester and 293 for West Yorkshire.

In one terraced street in Manchester, three residents told the BBC they had tampered with gas or electricity meters to save money, despite the risks of fire, electrocution or death.

One of them, 69-year-old mother of two Tracey – not her real name - said she bypassed her electricity meter for eight years after being shown how by a local electrician.

"I couldn't afford it," she said. "I was out of work, I had no money and I had two kids and it was so cold. We couldn't live without the heating."

Tracey admitted she knew it was dangerous and illegal but felt she had no choice. "I hated doing it," she said. "And I knew I could have got caught. But that was the price I was willing to pay."

She added: "Everyone around here is on the fiddle. It's a very poor area and a lot of us – and that includes young families with kids - just can't afford to pay the bills."

Tracey said she stopped stealing power when she got an electric shock - and has since moved to a house she rents privately.

But she said she is more than £1,000 in fuel debt after failing to pay the bills.

Live wires on her meter were exposed and the plastering close to the outside wall to which it was attached, had come away, leaving it vulnerable to wet weather.

She said: "I'm not on the fiddle anymore but I don't feel safe here. It's a death trap."

Ofgem set the price cap from 1 January for a typical dual-fuel household paying by direct debit at £1,758.

While the price cap has come down since early 2023, it remains around 40% higher than before the energy crisis.

Tracey said: "It might be theft what I did – what so many others around here are doing. But the prices they're charging for gas and electric are daylight robbery."

There were 2,435 reported 'dishonest use of electricity' offences in 2024-25 in England and Wales.

Of those, just 9% resulted in someone being charged or summonsed. At 47%, almost half of cases had an outcome of 'investigation complete, no suspect identified'.

Criminal justice data shows the number of cases proceeded against have dropped over the last 10 years.

Across England and Wales, in the year ending June 2025, there were 502 cases, down from 1,153 in the year ending June 2016.

It is not just families on the breadline fiddling the electric meter. Crime gangs are also bypassing the grid to power cannabis farms – often setting up utility companies to dig up roads to reach mains supplies.

Outside a disused warehouse in Blackpool, Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service's incident intelligence officer Warren Topp showed our investigation where criminals had dug up the road to connect live cables to a cannabis farm.

He said: "They bring in a professional jointing team because it must be done live, which is extremely dangerous. That gives them an unmetered supply."

The gang even made fake double yellow lines made from stickers to dupe police.

One organized crime group in the North West registered a company as a fake utility provider in their scheme to supply electricity to more than 50 illegal grows linked to Albanian gangsters.

But botched connections outside a foiled cannabis factory growing plants worth £1.5m in Bangor, North Wales sparked a series of explosions leaving one of the offenders with serious facial burns.

Warren said the underground digging posed a serious health risk to the public.

The buildings themselves, he added, are incredibly dangerous for firefighters.

"We can't isolate the supply, we're dealing with water and live electric, and there are holes cut through floors that firefighters can fall through."

The BBC sent Freedom of Information requests to police forces across England and Wales asking for the number of cases of reported energy theft connected to suspected drug cultivation.

In total, 14 forces provided comparable figures for the last three years.

Durham Constabulary reported the highest percentage of linked cases, with 72% (168 of 232) linked to suspected drug cultivation between 2023 and 2025.

They are followed closely by Cambridgeshire Constabulary, with 71% (48 of 68).

At the other end of the table, Devon & Cornwall had the lowest percentage, at 12%.

Around three quarters of meter-tampering callouts in Lancashire were cannabis-related, but fire chiefs say they are increasingly seeing desperate households taking similar risks.

Warren said: "We've seen a rise in callouts since Covid and the cost-of-living crisis.

"When money is scarce, people make the wrong decisions. They watch online tutorials and they think they can do the job themselves.

"But our message is clear. There is no safe way to bypass a meter. And if you do, you're putting yourself, your neighbours and firefighters at risk."

Electrician Tony warned: "The risks of bypassing or tampering with the meter are severe: Electric shock, death, burning your house down and probably half the row.

"It's as serious as that."

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