Neighbour secretly wires his home's electricity to house next door leaving couple with £4k bill

An electrician secretly stole £4,000 worth of power from his neighbours’ home by designing an elaborate system to divert the supply from theirs to his.

Leslie Pirie, 51, from Tayport, Fife, Scotland, used a device hidden behind a picture frame to steal the power - leaving his upstairs’ neighbours with an eye-watering bill.

Hugh, 52, and Tracy Torrance, 46, said that their bills were so extortionate that they had to get their teenage daughter to work to help fund the payments.

Investigators who began looking into the high charges soon realised that the family was paying for both their own bills and Pirie’s.

The electrician admitted to stealing electricity from the Torrance's home in Tayport between July 2017 and August 2020.

Pirie, who cut a hole in the plasterboard to hide a blocker device, will have to pay the full amount back in instalments of £40 a month over eight years.

Solicitor John Boyle, defending, said the neighbours were “essentially out of pocket to the tune of £4,000”.

He added: “They still remain neighbours, but obviously they are not on particularly good terms.”

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Fiscal depute Kate Scarborough told Dundee Sheriff Court: “The accused is essentially the downstairs neighbour of Mr and Mrs Torrance and had been for some time.

“The complainers became aware of their electricity bills becoming increasingly and unusually high. They contacted the electricity provider and the council and investigations were carried out.

“This led to a house visit to the properties at 10 and 12 and that revealed there had been Henley blocks added to the power supply. This device was splitting off the supply from the complainers’ at number 10 to the accused’s property at 12.

“They had an electric smart metre fitted and that is how they were able to keep track of top-ups. The Henley blocks were found in the accused’s property behind a picture frame.

“When the picture frame was moved, a portion of the dry wall had been cut out and the Henley blocks were fitted into the hole.”

Outside court, Hugh Torrance, a boat builder, said: “We put in a pre-pay metre and it was using £10 a day or more. My daughter was giving me money just to keep us going.

“In 2020 an electrician came out to look at it and he knew straight away what had been going on. They went into his house and found a hole cut out in the wall. His metre was at zero for ages.”

Tracey Torrance added: “We thought he was alright, quiet, just a nice guy. I just feel really disappointed.”

Pirie was admonished by Sheriff Morag Fraser.