Arrest warrant for power theft suspect

By GEORGINA KOREI
A MAGISTRATE has issued a warrant for the arrest of a foreigner charged with stealing electricity power worth K1.2 million.
He was alleged to have used the electricity, but did not pay.
The warrant was issued after the accused failed to appear in court.
Plaintiff in the matter is PNG Power Limited (PPL).
Committal Court magistrate Albert Daniels issued the warrant of arrest for Weng Wuiquing, 40, from Fujian, China when informed that the accused was not present.
Daniels set aside Weng’s K2,000 bail, and said it would be reviewed on Nov 5.
Police prosecutor Const Mathew Ketan informed the court that Weng and his lawyer were not present for the hearing.
According to police, Weng was allegedly the manager of Wantok Trading Ltd, and was responsible for the keys to the PPL meter box at the business location at Boroko, NCD. Wantok Trading allegedly operates a variety of businesses including the Wantok Night Club, Wantok Pokies, Wan Mart, M and H Bookmakers and Sky 9 Hotel.
Electricity supply to run all these operations were allegedly supplied through a single meter box. It was alleged that Weng was the only person with the key who could allow access for PPL workmen to carry out inspections.
Police claimed that sometime in 2020, PPL’s non-system loss team noticed that the amount of power used was low for a large location.
They subsequently conducted two inspections on Feb 26, 2020 and March 20, 2020.
The inspections revealed that the meter box had been tampered with and was replaced with a new one.
PPL then relocated the meter box to the outside of the building which resulted in a rise in power usage and, consequently, the payment of power bills.
However, a sudden decrease in the normal bill payment was detected again late last year.
Since the company had a history of power tampering, another inspection was conducted on Jan 20 and it was discovered that some wiring inside the meter box had been cut.
The meter had been tampered with which resulted in PPL making a loss of K1.2 million in unpaid bills.
Several PPL officials were terminated and suspended and Weng was arrested and charged.