need advice regarding of accusation of tampering gas meter by BGas.

[funray]

just join legalbeagles. wish everyone all the best.

I have been threatened to have my gas cut off unless I pay £9k by Wednesday.
I am accused of tampering the gas meter located at the front of my shop,inside an unlocked cabinet.

On last Wednesday, i was handed a letter of the test result of the meter which was taken away by a BGas revenue protection officer in person. And it shows 2 pictures of the proof of tampering, which was surely not done by me or any member of my staff.

It happened a year ago when a guy from Bgas came and said to check my meter. After spending 5 minutes there alone by the meter, I found him was still there so i went out to see what he was doing. He told me the meter had been tampered and there were some scratches on the blue seal above the clock of the meter. When I checked it out, I found there was no scratch on top of the the seal and hence I asked for his ID and after further inspections by me, my wife and a friend of mine and we all said there was no scratch or mark on the seal. Then he made an excuse to say the meter may be slow. He said that the clock did not move and told us the meter would be taken away for test in coming weeks before leaving. But Bgas never came back and took the meter away.

Then on September/October, there were 2 Bgas guys from revenue protection team came to check my meter again. And it happened when I was alone there in my shop. I let them in and checked on the meter. I was staying with them in the very beginning and told them the incident happened last year that I was accused of by their colleague. I told them I did not remember his name but mentioned that he was an African origin. And the guys just said they knew him. I even showed them the blue seal there and they agreed there was no obvious scratch on the seal. They said they need further check on it so I let them doing their job.
When I was away from them, I notice the older guy was leaning with his body on something very hard. So I went to ask them what they were doing. Their answer was, they put a piece of something like a blue tac to get the impress of the serial numbers on the top of the seal. Because I had no idea what it meant, I kept my mouth shut and then the younger was keeping me away from his friend who was doing the so-called check of the meter by chatting with me. So before they left, I was told the initial check was nothing wrong with the meter being tampered but they still needed to take the meter away for further inspection. Since I did nothing wrong to the meter and I was not worried a bit whatever. so I told them they were welcome to do so any time. My nightmare started because I did not check the meter again before they left.

Then on last Wednesday, the same guy from the revenue protection unit came to my shop and showed me the test result and immediately, he started to estimate how much the gas I STOLE for the past 6 years.

He gave me a figure of about £6k. Then of cos I started to challenge him about the tampering and the cost. Guess what happened???!!!!! He said because I did not agree him with the figure so he increased them to £9K. It is not right, is it? He actually said that in front of me, my wife and my staff. Ok, then I finally asked him to get an invoice or statement of what he said I owed Bgas. It is unbelievable that his colleague just wrote the amount down on a piece of my own paper.He demanded us to pay the full £9k by the next wednesday or i would have my gas cut off. He did not give me an written notice of any warning too.

On Thursday, my wife and I started to call Bgas to file a complaint and even to report it to the police. But Bgas always referred us back to that guy who came to hand me the shock. Bas is not helpful at all. We are like, a sinking ship going no where.

My question now is, do I pay or not to pay him on wednesday! By the way, I have no £9k in my bank. He even demand me to pay with cash or visa card but not cheque. It sounds fishy but he works for a big company, BRITISH GAS PLC.

Finally, I called Bgas again today, and guess what happens? Because I was never given any written letter or invoice, I was told by thatBgas guy the amount I owe now is £10k. OMG.


HELP! HELP! HELP!

[des8]

Re: need advice regarding of accusation of tampering gas meter by BGas.

Hi & welcome

I regret I find your post a trifle confusing.

How long have you been in the shop?

Have British Gas ever actually removed the meter for testing?
Have B Gas sent you communications through the post?
When you phoned B Gas, from where did you get their number? From a note given by one of the "engineers" or an earlier bill?

The way you tell it sounds like a scam.

If they are genuine B.Gas employees you can dispute the amount as they have estimated it.
It is unlikely, but not impossible, that they will prosecute for meter tampering. As the meter is probably accessible by other people they may have difficulty proving tampering (if there is any) was your doing.

[bluebottle]

Re: need advice regarding of accusation of tampering gas meter by BGas.

Hi & welcome

I regret I find your post a trifle confusing.

How long have you been in the shop?

Have British Gas ever actually removed the meter for testing?
Have B Gas sent you communications through the post?
When you phoned B Gas, from where did you get their number? From a note given by one of the "engineers" or an earlier bill?

The way you tell it sounds like a scam.

If they are genuine B.Gas employees you can dispute the amount as they have estimated it.
It is unlikely, but not impossible, that they will prosecute for meter tampering. As the meter is probably accessible by other people they may have difficulty proving tampering (if there is any) was your doing.

I have to agree with everything you say, Des. I am smelling a scam, too. Unless BG can prove the OP has tampered with the meter in any way - and the onus is on BG - they are skating on very thin ice, legally, indeed. As for BG's demands, I feel it is a case of, "Until you can prove, conclusively, that amount of gas has been consumed, the account is in dispute." I do not consider tampering by the BG employees described by the OP can be ruled out either. Their demeanour raises a lot of questions. The BG employee's statement that was witnessed by two other persons besides the OP could be important. The OP and those who were present when the statement was uttered need to write down what the BG employee said and sign and date it if they have not already done so.