I broke the main fuse seal

pete01 said:

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Have there actually ever been any prosecutions for "pulling the main fuse" alone, I wonder?

Quite apart from anything else, the fuse will presumably have been 'pulled' only briefly, so the only remaining 'physical evidence' would be that the cutout seal had been broken at some point in time by someone - and I would have thought that it, if the accused person was denying responsibility for that, that a court would struggle to determine "beyond a reasonable doubt" who had broken the seal. If it got really silly, even fingerprints and/or DNA on the outside of cutout (or even on the seal) could not 'prove' that!

Mottie said:

What about when you have a new consumer unit fitted - does the main fuse have to be pulled?

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If you contact your energy supplier they will come and fit an after-meter isolator for you

akist said:

I wanted to fit another electricity meter, just to check on the company's one

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You can do this with a CT clamp based meter that doesn’t involve disconnecting anything. It will be accurate enough to “check on” the enerco’s meter

robinbanks said:

If you contact your energy supplier they will come and fit an after-meter isolator for you

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Is that a free service or must you pay for that?

Mottie said:

Is that a free service or must you pay for that?

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Some charge, some do it free, some charge for the actual isolator, some provide free. If you provide a suitable isolator, and they are changing meters anyway, they will do it for free whilst there.

Long ago, when they fitted my smarts, I mounted my own isolator, on the board and ready to connect. At some point, maybe years in the future, I was planning to replace the consumer unit, and new uprated tails. I only got around to that, in the past couple of years.

Last time I enquired in the old NORWEB area I think it was £12 to supply and fit an isolator . to come and make a temporary connection permanent say after a new consumer unit fitted it was ...... £12.
So the sensible thing was to request an isolator and allow them to fit it before you started any CU change/rewire etc.

A pal of mine fell foul of them cos they sent a stern letter demanding he removed a consumer unit fro "Their Board" and were charging him £12 to connect a consumer on a board he must supply himself.
He rang them and asked why they wanted to charge him and had not already connected the consumer unit as agreed.
They answered in a stern manner about he had no permission to mount his consumer unit on their board and he must remove it forthwith.
They suddenly changed tune and were extremely nice to him once he informed then=m that it was His Board not theirs and they had no permission to mount their meter on his board and they must come out immediately and put in their own board and meter and connect his consumer unit.
They then asked how big his board was and they asked his permission to mount their meter on his board.

Hahahaha it was a laugh.

They chaged from dogamatic high handed to can you be our friend please in the space of a couple of minutes.

Harry Bloomfield said:

Some charge, some do it free, some charge for the actual isolator, some provide free.

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All true - and I think it's probably as much down to the individual workers (who can sometimes be influenced by tea and biscuits ) as to policy on the part of the supplier.

Harry Bloomfield said:

If you provide a suitable isolator, and they are changing meters anyway, they will do it for free whilst there.

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I've sort-of experienced that twice (different properties and different suppliers). On both occasions they fitted an isolator for free at the time of a meter change, but on both occasions they refused to use the isolator I supplied but, instead' used an identical (Wylex) one 'from their van'

Mottie said:

Is that a free service or must you pay for that?

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Mate on octopus has just moved to a new house, called em up last week and asked for an isolator to be fitted so he can rip the rest of the shoddy install out, they said no problem and aren’t billing anything for it

My last experience of similar was with Eon a few years ago, I provided the isolator, they fitted it free

JohnW2 said:

Have there actually ever been any prosecutions for "pulling the main fuse" alone, I wonder?

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I suspect it's extremely hard to definitively answer a question like that. I suspect you would have to go through a huge pile of prosecutions with vauge titles to determine the facts of each case.

plugwash said:

I suspect it's extremely hard to definitively answer a question like that. I suspect you would have to go through a huge pile of prosecutions with vauge titles to determine the facts of each case.

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I realise that, which is why I 'wonder' - if it were easy to find a definitive answer, I would simply have souight and found it, not just 'wondered'.

However, as presumably is obvious, the fact that I voiced my 'wondering' here implies that I personally very much doubt that it has ever happened - and I've suggested at least one possible reason for that - even if they could be bothered to prosecute someone for just pulling a DNO fuse (which I seriously doubt) I do think that, in most cases, it would extremely difficult, if not impossible, to prove', "beyond a reasonable doubt" that a particular individual had done the deed!

It may now be a little easier for them, when there is a 'smart' meter, since they will then know exactly when, and for how long, the fuse was removed. However, in the absence of a smart meter, the only 'evidence' would be a broken seal, and the occupier of the house could simply deny any knowledge of how that had come about, or when!

JohnW2 said:

Have there actually ever been any prosecutions for "pulling the main fuse" alone, I wonder?

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Doubtful.


AI assistant answer:

Prosecutions
Publicly reported court cases specifically for solely unauthorised removal of the cut-out fuse (without additional elements like meter tampering, bypassing for theft, or harassment) appear rare or not widely documented in mainstream sources, court databases like Bailii, or Ofgem reports. Extensive searches of news, legal forums, government sites, and industry discussions turn up:
No high-profile standalone prosecutions highlighted in recent years.

Frequent industry warnings (from electricians' forums, IET guidance, DNO procedures) that it is a criminal offence and can result in prosecution. Examples include DNOs issuing warnings or call-out charges with explicit threats of court action for repeat offences. One forum post from over a decade ago asked how many had been prosecuted for pulling the DNO fuse, implying it happens but is not commonly publicised.

Related cases exist: Prosecutions for electricity theft (abstracting electricity) often involve meter interference, which can include fuse-related actions, with Merseyside showing high numbers historically. A civil harassment case involved a neighbour repeatedly cutting power (including via the fuse), leading to a large damages award but not a standalone criminal prosecution detailed for the fuse alone.

In practice, DNOs often respond with warnings, call-out fees (e.g., £60+), resealing requirements, or audits rather than immediate court action—especially for isolated incidents by electricians. However, misuse (e.g., repeated or suspicious tampering) can escalate to legal action, and DNO procedures explicitly allow for "legal action" in cases of seal misuse.

flameport said:

Doubtful.

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Quite so.

flameport said:

AI assistant answer:

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If he persists in 'helping us', I may run out of my supply of 'pinches of salt' . However ...

flameport said:

Publicly reported court cases specifically for solely unauthorised removal of the cut-out fuse (without additional elements like meter tampering, bypassing for theft, or harassment) appear rare or not widely documented in mainstream sources ....

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Hmmm. Your friend seems to think differently from us, since "...appear rare or not widely documented..." seems to imply that he thinks that there have been at least some prosecutions.

flameport said:

..... One forum post from over a decade ago asked how many had been prosecuted for pulling the DNO fuse, implying it happens but is not commonly publicised.

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Eh? That's precisely the question (albeit essentially rhetorical) that I posted in this forum, but my doing that certainly does not "imply that it happens"!!

flameport said:

Related cases exist: Prosecutions for electricity theft ..... A civil harassment case involved a neighbour repeatedly cutting power .... (including via the fuse), leading to a large damages award but not a standalone criminal prosecution detailed for the fuse alone.

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Sure, there are undoubtedly plenty of instances of more important/serious 'crimes' which also involve pulling the fuse, but that's not what we're talking about.

I still think that, particularly in the absence of a 'smart' meter, a successful criminal prosecution (for just pulling the fuse) could be very difficult to achieve (lack of adequate 'proof' to satisfy the criminal burden) and this may be part of the reason we don't see such prosecutions. Quite apart from the matter of cost (in terms of time, effort and money), I presume that the last thing a DNO would want would be a reputation for having a string of unsuccesful prosecutions for this activity!

I also wonder (again, in the absence of a 'smart' meter) how it would ever come to a DNO's attention that someone had ('just') pulled their fuse.

As I often mention, for years I have been seeing a lot of houses (many 'run down') being bought, refurbished and sold, and a substantial proportion have broken/absent cutout fuses, When that happens, we always inform the relevant DNO and 'invite' them to come and apply a seal but I have to say that I cannot recall one of them ever having done that! Most commonly, they merely thank us for informing them but when they do say something useful, it's usually along the lines of "the supplier's meter operative will seal it when they do the next meter change".

In discussions about "why should they bother" (to do anything about just 'pulled fuses'), someone will usually say something about 'safety' (of the person doing the fuse-pulling). However, I would suggest that if they did 'police' fuse-pulling fairly rigorously, then at least some people would, as a result, be moved to do something far more dangerous!