I’ve done a terrible thing… what to do now

[Odetojoy]

Hi,

about 9 months ago I was really struggling financially. My dad had just died and I was in a very bad place.

I knew that I hadn’t been paying enough for my electricity and I was being badgered for a meter reading. Stupidly I submitted a lower reading. I’m ashamed of this and know it’s illegal.

im now in a better position and want to sort this. Do I just enter the actual reading now? I’m also considering just calling them up and being totally honest about what I did.

what should I do? Please don’t judge me - I know how bad this is

Zero chance.

Submit an up to date readying, pay your bill and move on with your life x

Oh and the ‘high usage’ thing and urban legends of monitoring for cannabis farms. We got a meter installed by what turned out to be absolute cowboy electricians and it turned out there were multiple legal problems with it, which weren’t picked up for 2 years. When finally someone from the utility company came round one morning to look into it DH and I were getting ready for the school run/work and they told us ‘technically your meter looks like it could have been tampered with for cannabis farming purposes, but frankly you don’t look like the types’ - I got the feeling they know exactly what to look for in a cannabis farming set-up. It’s not a side hustle people just fall into : D

Just give them the new reading-if it was a big difference smooth it out over 2 or 3 readings.

Once I stayed away for several weeks, gave a reading before going and one when returning. When I came back my first bill based on actual readings was over a £1000. No one ever questioned why the difference as long as I accepted the bill and made the payment. They are busy with customers cases who can't pay now so they'll never waste time with past bills.

Also recently a friend received a letter from her provider with a huge huge bill because she never gave meter readings, she is a foreigner and frankly a bit naive not to understand the system. She expected visits to read the meter and didn't understand estimated bills. The provider brought her to court because she had no money to pay the huge bill that came. At that point we went together to CAB and they helped her sort it out. She had moved home in the meantime and just gave them the final reading. Eventually she was in credit, was refunded.
No one sanctioned her for not giving correct readings. They don't pursue you if you just pay. They don't put red flags.

Please don't feel you've done something so terrible by the way. Don't feel guilty if you've gone through something bad.

I have accidentally put the wrong reading in before. I didn't do it on purpose, my meter was quite old ( these things have a 15 to 20 year lifespan before smart meters came out) and it was 5 digits long. I just put the correct one in next time. Paid my bill. Sorted. Don't worry.

As an ex police officer I’d say the chance of them reporting you is zero. They have nothing to gain from doing so. Even if they did it would never end up in court

I’m very late to see this post so hopefully you’ve sorted it by now, but you’ll be absolutely fine. The charges are calculated by a computer and the bills sent automatically. I doubt that an actual human being will even see it, let alone think it’s unusual. I’m sure of this because British Gas recently charged me over £1,000 for a period when I’d normally pay around £100. It was a computer error and if a human being had bothered to look at it they would have noticed it was abnormally high, but instead it took me months of phone calls (and eventually escalating it to a complaint) to get it rectified. As long as they get their money they won’t notice/care and there is zero chance they’ll report you. Hope you got this sorted and sorry to hear what you’ve been through.

Just say your eye sight isn't all it was and you think you may have made a mistake. Then, maybe request a Smart Metre, they cost nothing and you'll never have to send a reading again.
I have them and my bills are lower, somehow.
Don't be hard on yourself, they make millions , they won't be bothered, they'll be paid in the end,.
Don't waste any more energy worrying over a multi billionaire company.
Happy New Year!

A bit like when I change my online Sainsbury's order and imagine a man tutting at me because I've already changed it twice and he thinks I need to make my mind up. I know that really no one at Sainsbury's cares but I still see him tutting at me.