THREE women, all from Sophia, Greater Georgetown, were before Magistrate Alex Moore, at Sparendaam Court last Friday, charged with fraudulently extracting electricity from the Guyana Power & Light (GPL) system.

Particulars of the charges said on Thursday, June 14, Shelly Daniels, Carol Nero and Robin Liverpool, of different Sophia addresses, extracted their electricity supply by fraud and caused it to be diverted from GPL to their homes.
Daniels and Liverpool pleaded guilty while Nero pleaded not guilty.
According to Daniels, she lives alone with her two children and it was her neighbours at the back of her house who had the illegal connection and she opted to connect her wire to get current, too, since according to her, everyone in her vicinity was connected by that means.
Liverpool said she was in the process of constructing her house and had asked her neighbour to join a wire to hers, so that the contractor could use power tools.
Nero declared that she was not at home when the GPL crew and police went to her residence but she got a telephone call informing her. She maintained that she was not in the habit of stealing electricity and has three lamps in her home for lights at nights.
She said she had to indicate to the GPL employees that some of the neighbours who had illegal connections, apparently, ran their wire underground in a part of her open yard. She said, despite her explanation, she was still arrested and charged.
Daniels and Liverpool were each fined $30,000 while Nero has to return to court, for a report, on January 14, 2013.