Energy shock: €17,000 circuit court claim, threat of judgment for fraudulent charges
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock.
The home in Dublin suffered a fire in January 2023. A lodger had made a mistake with a candle. The feeling when I go back there is a feeling of grief. The environment has become toxic. The work required to restore it is beyond what most individuals could comprehend, let alone execute. Yet going back there one day in July 2024, when it would seem that nothing could get worse, it did.
Imagine it is days before you are to leave on your summer vacation and a sinister looking, hand-written, red envelope arrives in your letterbox.</>
In my case, there was no summer vacation. I was on the way to an event in the United States.
Opening up the red envelope, I found court documents insisting that I have used €17,000 of energy in the eighteen months that the home has been vacant.
The key point in the document is where the lawyerists have written:
The Plaintiff's claim is for a sum in the amount of €17,061.25 which said sum is due and owing for the supply of electricity by the Plaintiff to the Defendant at the request of the Defendant under account number [REDACTED] at the address 121 Terenure Road West, Terenure, Dublin 6W D6KDK30 full particulars whereof have already been furnished by the Plaintiff to the Defendant.
In contrast, the Dublin Fire Brigade have written:
Crews entered the house using first aid and breathing apparatus. [DSO] in attendance – power isolated to building. Adjoining house checked for smoke and fire spread. DN12A1 remained in attendance to dampen down. Scene handed over to Gardai.
This week, the media made a huge fuss about Gerry "The Monk" Hutch becoming a candidate in the Irish General Election. Based on the communications I received from the Dublin Circuit Court and lawyerists who fabricated this claim, I simply can't see what is the difference between a lawyer and a gangster in Ireland.
Detailed history of the harassment
The fire occurred on 17 January 2023, seven days to the hour after the death of Cardinal Pell.
Fire brigade and Garda (Irish police) attended on the evening of the fire.
Two people received treatment for minor injuries. There was one casualty, Lemon the cat.
On 16 March 2023 I used the contact form, choosing the option "Safety & emergencies" to inform the electricity retailer about the situation:
The home was rendered uninhabitable by a fire on 17 January. [DSO] attended an emergency call out and disconnected the property on the day of the fire. Please end the contract effective 17 January and provide a final bill.
On 18 March 2023 the electricity retailer sent a reply:
We hadn't received a closing read from [DSO] from when the meter had been removed. In this case, we would have to close the account on an estimated read, and we cannot backdate unfortunately. I would advise contacting [DSO] to explain the situation to see if they had taken a read on the day off, which they can then update to yourx account so that we can provide you with an accurate closing read.
Apolgies for the inconvenience and your devastating situation.
At this point, I believed the account had been closed. Surely things couldn't get any worse?
On 24 March 2023 I used the complaint form to notify the electricity retailer about unexpected direct debits from my account:
I received emails from [redacted] with the title "Your Electricity bill is available". None of the emails have any bill attached to them so I am unable to see the meter readings or the amount to pay. In February and March you attempted to take direct debit payments that failed because you never sent any bills. CCPC guidance states that [redacted] must give advance notice of the direct debits. By failing to include the bills in the emails, [redacted] is failing to give advance notice of the direct debit collection. Please kindly send me by email copies of all outstanding bills.
Anyhow, I continued receiving empty emails from the electricity retailer. None of the emails contain a bill.
As a small business owner, I deal with many different companies who send me bills by email. Normally you just click the attachment and you see the bill. But the electricity retailer, who has hundreds of thousands of customers in Ireland, has sent me dozens of these emails and not one of them actually has the bill attached to it.
Based on the above, when I saw these empty emails arriving, I simply assumed they were sending me the same bill over and over again. Yet I was unable to close the account without the final meter reading.
On 24 March 2023 I sent the following reply:
Please tell me the last read you received from [DSO] and the date
Later the same day, the electricity retailer send a response:
I cant see the history of your meter readings on our system as you have got a smart meter installed. [DSO] record all the meter readings for your property. If you wish you can request the history of your meter readings from [DSO].
As it is a smart meter, the readings only appear on the LCD screen when the power is connected. As the DSO had disconnected the site during the fire, the meter has no power and the LCD is blank:
Out of curiosity, I sent another reply back to the electricity retailer:
If you can't see the meter readings then how do you get the values for the bills?
The question didn't receive any response.
Of course, what would I know about energy consumption or metric collection, monitoring the data centers for one of the UK's largest banks and such things?
In fact, in 2022, there had already been a previous complaint about the installation of the smart meter. The DSO and the electricity retailer sent me around in circles. Both pointed the finger at each other. I raised a complaint with the DSO in 2022, before the fire and they told me that they can't give meter readings directly to the end user. Consequently, I didn't contact them again after the reply from the electricity retailer on 24 March 2023.
The electricity retailer continued to send me reminder emails without attaching any bill.
From my own experience in business, if I send my customer an email without attaching a bill, they just don't pay me. I don't think I ever sent such an email to a customer without attaching the bill and required evidence. Billing is a tedious task both for the supplier and the customer so whenever I send somebody a bill, I try very hard to get it right the first time and I attach absolutely everything they might need to put it through their approvals and payments process.
Nonetheless, the electricity retailer continued to send me reminder emails without any attachments or evidence. There was simply no reason for me to suspect the account was actually increasing by €1,000 per month for my uninhabitable Irish home and it would be another year in fact before this absurdity came to my attention.
In September 2023, after another one of those empty emails, I sent another email on 7 September 2023:
Can you please confirm that [retailer] and [DSO] have communicated with each other to determine the final meter reading when the house was disconnected due to a fire on 17 January 2023?
This was a catastrophic event that has had a significant impact on my life. I can't be running back and forth between [retailer] and [DSO] asking why you are not doing your jobs. How can 8 months pass without anybody closing the account properly for a service that has been disconnected in such circumstances? How can you keep nagging me with more bills in such circumstances?
You have sent me numerous requests to pay outstanding bills but there is no confirmation of the final meter reading so it is impossible for me to settle the account.
Please escalate this ASAP. I would like to settle this account with a single payment when all details have been corrected.
The next day, the electricity retailer sent a response:
We have now sent a meter damage notification to [DSO] who should be in contact with you in relation to your meter. We want to offer our sincere apologies for any inconvenience caused.
A day later, on 9 September 2023 I sent the following:
The house hasn't been repaired yet, there were problems with getting the mail forwarded elsewhere and if [DSO] sends any correspondence to the house then I am unsure if I will receive it
I attach the report from the fire brigade. They confirm that [DSO] attended on an emergency call out and disconnected the meter.
The fire brigade confirms the date and time of the disconnection. This is unambiguous.
Please tell me the last automated reading [electricity retailer] received from the smart meter before the fire at 20:55 on 17 January 2023.
On 13 September 2023 the electricity retailer sends another response:
As you have a smart meter we would not be able to view the reading from January. I am very sorry for the inconvince caused. [DSO] would be in contact with you through phone to set up an appointment. Alternatively you can contact [DSO] to get this information.
This is getting absurd: how can they generate bills if they never receive readings from the DSO?
On 4 October 2023 I sent another reply to the electricity retailer:
I never received any communication from [DSO] with the meter reading
I am not available to discuss it by phone
Please send me a written confirmation of the final meter reading on the day of the fire.
You can send it either by phone or by email.
I'm keen to resolve this and ensure the bill is corrected and then paid without further delay.
On 7 October 2023 the electricity retailer sent the reply:
I am sorry for the inconvenience caused. [DSO] states on their system that your meter is still energised and sending estimated reads to our system. These reads are being used on your bills. I would advised as these reads are estimated, to take a time stamped picture of your meter.
A time stamp on the photo means the current date or the date of when the photo was taken needs to be displayed in the picture. You can take a screenshot of the photo in your gallery app on your phone which will display the date. Alternatively you can retake the photo with the current date displaying on a newspaper or receipt or a lottery ticket.
At the point where it says "still energised", my mind kind of switched off. I was going through a hideous process of trying to deal with the consequences of the fire, the cybertorture campaign and the death of cats in multiple countries and at the same time, the electricity retailer seems to have completely failed to comprehend the fact the service was disconnected nine months prior.
Nonetheless, there is something totally absurd in that response: why would a smart meter send estimated reads? The whole point of smart meters is to eliminate the estimated reads. You can't have estimated reads after getting a smart meter.
Shortly after receiving the email on 7 October 2023, I called them out:
What you wrote is nonsense
Why do you make me repeat myself again when I told you clearly there was a fire in the house?
How can you be so rude and insensitive to ask me to take a photo of a meter in a house that burnt down, after I clearly told you on multiple occasions that there was a fire?
Why would I have sent you an email asking you to provide the meter readings from your logs if the meter was still energized and accessible to me?
In consideration of your unreasonable attitude in handling what should have been a simple request, I kindly ask that if you can't provide the final reading as of 17 January 2023 then simply write off the bill.
On 10 October 2023 a reply came back from a different email address, giving me the impression the case had been escalated:
I'm sorry for the delay in replying to your email.
I have contacted [DSO]'s Meter Operations Department to query the status of you meter. I have also requested confirmation of what the meter was reading on 17 January 2023.
Once they have updated us we will be in touch to advise of the next steps.
Your account is on hold in the meantime so no payment will be expected for the current balance on the account.
I appreciate that the last 9 months must have been a very difficult time for you and I apologise for the added stress that this situation is causing you. Once we get the confusion with the meter readings cleared up, we will correct your account and charges as soon as possible.
The electricity retailer continued sending emails with titles like "Payment reminder" and "Your electricity bill is available".
On 19 January 2024 the boss of a well known British energy company appeared on TV to tell people he can't justify his salary. I was impressed by his honesty. Nonetheless, being a CEO is hard work and senior managers are on call seven days a week. His salary was therefore at least a little bit more justifiable than the fabricated bills that I had yet to see at this moment in time. I looked at the web site of his company, they have a Code for the way they do business with their suppliers and customers. It is sad that something like that doesn't exist in the Irish state. Here he is on the sofa at the BBC.
On 10 February 2024 I sent another complaint about the situation. I was still totally in the dark about the fact they had failed to close the account, unaware that they were adding charges to the account to the tune of €1,000 per month for the uninhabitable house.
Previously contacted you about problems with final bill.
My home rendered uninhabitable by fire 17/1/2023
[DSO] attended, disconnected supply. I am grateful to [DSO] and fire brigade for prompt intervention.
I acknowledge that there is an outstanding balance to be paid, however, the amount of the outstanding balance remains unclear
I would like to consider [electricity retailer] as a possible supplier when service is reconnected after rebuild
Neither [DSO] or [electricity retailer] provided final reading from the smart meter.
Please kindly suspend all collection procedures, advise how we can confirm the final reading.
On 12 February 2024 the electricity retailer sent the following response:
I'm sorry for the delay in replying to your email.
Further to your email I can advise we would need a time stamped photograph of the meter readings or if you can call us on [redacted] (Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturdays 9am to 5.30pm) we can arrange a special read request for you in order for [DSO] to come out to read your meter.
If you would like to contact our collections department their number is [redacted] or by email [redacted].
We look forward to hearing from you and helping you with this.
The same day, 12 February 2024, I replied:
You are repeating the mistake you made before
Please escalate the complaint to somebody else
The same day, 12 February 2024, the electricity retailer sends a reply:
I have tried to locate account [MPRN] you provided but this is not coming up on our system. Please check your bill and either provide us with the correct account or the GPRN/MPRN number.
We're sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause but as soon as we get this info we will take care of your email immediately.
On 13 May 2024 the lawyerists at Hugh J. Ward & Co sent the following demand. I received it a few days later. When I opened the letter, it was a total shock to me. None of the emails from the electricity retailer had any bills attached to them so I had assumed that the billing had stopped after the fire. In fact, the customer service people had told me the billing had stopped. Was I dealing with a real person or did I waste my time communicating with an AI? In fact, what this balance reveals is that despite the electricity retailer acknowledging the fire and the distress it caused, the greedy bastards continued adding €1,000 per month to the bill.
On 21 May 2024, in respect of their insistence on a reply, I sent the following email to the electricity retailer:
There is no electricity
The meter was disconnected on 17 January 2023 because of the fire
Why do you keep sending me more emails about bills?
Now you sent me a letter demanding EUR 17,061.25
I attach a photo of the electricity meter. The meter is blank. There is no reading on the meter.
I attach a copy of the fire report. There is no electric service at the house
I attach a copy of the letter. Where did this EUR 17,061.25 come from if the meter is not working at all?
On 21 May 2024 the electricity retailer sent me the following response:
Thanks for contacting [electricity retailer].
We’re currently experiencing a high volume of queries but we'll do our best to get back to you within 48 hours, sooner if possible.
Instead of sending a response to the email, they sent this letter. This is the first time I received any correspondence from the electricity company stating a balance. The previous letter with a balance had come from their lawyerists.
Another two days passed and instead of getting a response to my email, the lawyerists sent another threat:
On 28 May 2024 the electricity retailer sent me another letter threatening to disconnect the meter that was already disconnected, along with a threat to put me on a pre-pay meter:
On 22 July 2024, I had been waiting two months for them to reply to my last email. They had promised a response within 24 hours but instead the lawyerists sent another letter with court documents attached.
This is a circuit court civil bill:
This is perjury
The lawyerists have signed a letter insisting that they supplied electricity to a house that was disconnected.
They also insist that they sent me bills. They never sent me the bills. The emails they sent me never had bills attached to them. If they don't actively attach and transmit the bill from their system to the customer's mailbox then they have no basis for making a claim, even if the balance was vaguely legitimate.
Looking at the debt collection regime in the Irish state, a debt can only be claimed in the Circuit Court if the balance exceeds €5,000. The actual balance at the time of the fire would appear to be far below that threshold. There might be only a few hundred euros outstanding but because they never finalized the bill properly, they have created a mountain out of a molehill.
Their decision to initiate a procedure in the Circuit Court for a neglible balance and without any evidence from the meter appears to be a violation of the procedural rules for the Circuit Court.
But who cares? These are lawyerists, a close cousin of the jurists from Swiss JuristGate.
It is really staggering. Irish lawyerists are demanding that victims of these letters respond within ten working days. The courts are sending these letters out in July when many people are on vacation abroad. To add insult to injury, the timing felt like a malicious ambush.
What was the point of ejecting colonialism from Ireland if we have lawyerists like this who carry on much the same way, ambushing people, stealing their assets, creating conflicts where there is simply no reason to do so?
Fortunately the letter did come to my attention before the deadline and I filed a response.
Nonetheless, they still haven't provided a final balance. As it is a smart meter, they should have received automatic readings through the wireless transponder every day up to the day of the fire.
Although I'm not employed by this company, I spent some of my own time, unpaid, logging in to their web site. As an IT professional, this is work. I found they had been hiding the bills in the web site so that I wouldn't see how big they are.
They even produce these charts. The fire was on 17 January 2023 and we can look at a chart for 18 January 2023 that says the electricity was still being consumed even as I was there picking through the rubble looking for anything that could be salvaged:
Looking at an account statement, we can see the size of the fraudulent bills they generated, even after they were told on multiple occasions that there had been a fire. Notice the dates on these bills, they are after the dates of the emails promising me they would close the account:
Some of the bills in the screenshot were generated in the winter after the fire while the house was still unoccupied. Notice that the electricity retailer has received three Government Electricity Credit payments of €150 each, a total of €450 that the electricity retailer has received from the Irish state without providing any service.
The top question in their FAQ: "My bill is higher than expected". This gave me the impression that I may not be the only customer being harassed by lawyerists for electricity that doesn't exist. This is one of the principle reasons why I decided to run in the Irish General Election
While other candidates printed leaflets, I am printing copies of my electricity bill and giving them out.
In Ireland, people joke and ask if you left your immersion on. The fire went vertically through the hot press and destroyed the immersion cylinder:
There has been widespread attention on the former bank robber Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch running as a candidate in the election. Energy bills like this are a bank robbery in progress. If people want to take action against these practices, vote for the person who is publishing evidence of corruption like this. Look at how I picked apart the Swiss JuristGate crisis, even when the lawyerists redacted all the names. Look at how I exposed identity fraud at FSFE, a corporate lobbyist pretending to be a non-profit group. Look at how I picked apart the Debian Harassment culture, including a suicide cluster.
In all of these scandals, whether it is the energy bills or the Swiss JuristGate crisis, it is not hard to imagine victims having a heart attack, victims committing suicide because of the stress. The same thing recently happened in Australia with the Robodebt crisis. When something like this is detected, we need to nip it in the bud. Notice the similarities between Robodebt in Australia and the energy bills in Ireland:
[Quoting Wikipedia article about Robodebt]
Allegations of misconduct
Allegations levelled against the scheme by the media, former and current welfare recipients, advocacy groups, politicians and relatives of welfare recipients include:
Welfare recipients' suicide after receiving automated debt recovery notices for significant sums.
Debt notices were issued to deceased people.
Issuing debt notices to disability pensioners.
Revelations that debt notices were issued to 663 vulnerable people (people with complex needs like mental illness and abuse victims) who died soon after.
In the case of the Irish lawyerists, there is one key difference compared to Robodebt. While Robodebt involved the use of a system that was automated, we can see that somebody has personally looked at the court documents because they have written my name on the envelope by hand. If they had looked at the papers, how could they not realize the absurdity of their demands?
The sole purpose of the electricity retailers we have in Ireland is to take the readings from the DSO and send the correct bill to the customer. If their job is so simple, why can't they do it competently?
When you ring any of these large companies today, it is not uncommon for them to try and greet you with AI. The AI systems are becoming much better and that makes their voices harder and harder to distinguish from the offshore callcenter workers. But does an AI system understand the impact of disasters like fires, floods and storms on their customers?
Are they even taking the meter readings from the correct meter or did they get their wires crossed somewhere when smart meters were installed and everything went wireless?
Voting for somebody with international experience of uncovering corruption is the only way to protect the Dublin community from practices like this.
When the elections were called, the parties from the ruling coalition put up all their posters first. In our street, they put them on the electricity poles, which is prohibited. Here is the pole outside my home:
If you would like to vote for a professional who can think about the things that mainstream candidates overlook Vote [1] DANIEL POCOCK and remember to follow Daniel Pocock's blog at DanielPOCOCK.com
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It started with a candle... █
