THIRTY-SEVEN persons were taken before the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate’s Court Wednesday after police raided their communities and charged them with stealing electricity from Jamaica Public Service Company (JPS) power lines.

Most of them pleaded guilty and were fined a minimum of $3,000 and a maximum of $7,000 or 30 days imprisonment when they appeared before Resident Magistrate Martin Gayle.

Two of the accused, Clement Davis and Novelette Rowe, both of Paisley Road addresses in Kingston, were admonished and discharged after the court was told that someone in their household had already been fined for the offence.

Violet Corrington and Brian Collins both pleaded not guilty to the charge and will return to court on February 2, when their cases will be next heard.

Illegal electricity connections are dangerous and have often resulted in the loss of life and property. In July last year, 20 families were left homeless and two homes burnt to cinder after a fire broke out at Foster Lane in Southside, Kingston.

Firemen who fought the blaze said an illegal connection was the cause of the blaze.

A few months earlier, Eustace Brown of Mount Peace district in Hanover was electrocuted after he tried to connect an illegal cable to power lines.

The JPS has renewed its drive to clamp down on illegal electricity connections which has cost the company millions of dollars in lost revenue.

A special unit, the Assets and Revenue Protection Division, has been set up to tackle the illegal power problem.