A Newcastle man sentenced to five years in jail for two counts of theft after illegally selling electricity through a machine stolen from Eskom had his sentence cut to a R10 000 fine by the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Tuesday.
Petros Lashani Ndlovu (40) was earlier convicted in the Newcastle Regional Court of stealing a credit-dispensing unit valued at R43 000 from Eskom. The unit was apparently illegally supplied to him by Eskom staff.
He was also convicted of stealing electricity from Eskom and was sentenced in May 2005. He appealed against his convictions and sentence.
Ndlovu had a contract with Eskom to sell electricity through a credit-dispensing unit on a pre-paid basis, with a unit supplied by Eskom.
In addition to the legitimate unit, Eskom investigators found a ghost unit hidden underneath a counter in his premises. This was used to sell electricity.
The proceeds of the sales made by the ghost unit were not paid into Eskom’s account. Only money received for the electricity sold through the legitimate unit was paid to Eskom.
Judge Gregory Kruger said that Ndlovu had rightly been convicted of two counts of theft. However, he said the trial magistrate who had concluded that Ndlovu was unable to pay a fine had failed to inquire whether he could raise the money to pay the fine by selling assets or borrowing.
Kruger, therefore, set aside the jail sentence and instead imposed a fine of R10 000, or three years’ imprisonment if Ndlovu failed to pay the fine.
Judge Sharmaine Balton concurred. — Sapa