TAWAU, Nov 15 — Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) said today it suffered a loss of RM5 million during the period January to October this year due to theft of electricity from tampering of the meters by commercial and domestic users in Sabah and the Federal Territory of Labuan.

Its chief transformation officer, Ahmad Nassaruddin Kamaruzaman, said the loss was linked to 1,191 cases of domestic users, 148 cases of commercial users and one case of industrial user.

"The Energy Commission is also in the process of prosecuting 29 users for tampering with the SESB meter,” he told reporters following an SESB Electricity Theft operation today.

In the operation, SESB found that six commercial users in Jalan Tanjung Batu here had tampered with the meter for almost a year, causing SESB to lose RM120,000, he said.

"Their modus operandi was to install illegal connections before or behind the meter to keep their electricity charges low. This is prohibited. We will get the offenders to compensate for their action, failing which they will be taken to court,” he said.

Ahmad Nassaruddin said SESB has approved the policy of giving remuneration to whistleblowers on meter-tampering cases and illegal electricity connections in addition to enforcing the use of the SESB authority cards. — Bernama