Sammy G
Ex-Bluelighter
me and bodda both habitually rewired our electric meters to deactivate the cut off i.e stop the meter turning off your leccy. ran those fuckers into huge debt, just had to avoid the metermen seeing your handiwork. ridiculously simple, a matter of one wire shorting across two points beneath the meter, was dodgy at times though. however, risking electrocution and burning to death in our beds was, at the time, the preferable option to slowly freezing to death in places where we had no gas to use as an alternative source of heat
When I was 24 I moved into a flat where somebody had run up a £70+ debt that way before leaving the house. The estate agents neglected to mention it before I moved in, then protested their innocence once I had.
Of course, the electricity company made it their top priority to refund me. I eventually gave up after two weeks of cold showers and cooking meals on a camping stove.
Fucking awful thing as well - one of those token meters. I didn't know they were still around by the mid-2000s, but they were. There was one shop which sold the tokens, and if they weren't open you were fucked. And the cost of running the thing was like maintaining a crack habit. It wasn't even as if you could fuck with the meter and get away with it - it was right above the front door.
Disgusting tax on the poor, that's what prepaid meters are.