THE owner of two posh seaside restaurants has been jailed after stealing nearly £150,000 worth of gas - over 20 years.
Martin Billingsley, 61, got away with helping himself to the gas which he used to run his popular establishments.
But justice finally caught up with Billingsley and he appeared in court to plead guilty to repeatedly tampering with gas pipes to bypass meters - risking an explosion and endangering lives.
He was finally exposed after an investigation was launched by British Gas into The Boathouse and Food for Thought in Fowey, Cornwall.
The investigation by British Gas began in March this year when an officer, known only as Ruby 608, visited and found irregularities.
She discovered that Billingsley had been receiving a supply of gas, but had not been paying for it, due to a dodgy diversion around the gas meter.
Ruby 608 found a gas meter "sitting on the floor with no caps and pipework attached to it", which Billingsley put down to his wife being "very nervous around gas".
The inspector found that the restaurant's gas appliances were being fed by a meter from The Boathouse next door, but Billingsley said he had no knowledge of who had diverted the pipes.
A National Grid engineer was sent to the scene, who discovered that the pipes had been loose and gas was escaping into nearby kitchens.
Ruby 608 said: "The gas escape could easily have caught fire, and it is more luck than judgement that there was never an explosion."
The inspector then went to check Billingsley's home, and found that the pipework there had also been tampered with.
Ruby 608 said: "There was copper pipe soldered to the incoming pipe. This pipe work meant that gas would bypass the meter so that it wasn't recorded when the valve was opened."
His gas supply was then disconnected, but a follow-up visit to The Boathouse on April 27 revealed yet more tampering.
At that point Billingsley protested that doing so would "finish him", and he became erratic.
He went to his car, downed a wine glass full of gin, then drove off into the street.
Ruby 608 immediately contacted the police, and National Grid engineers came out to shut off his gas supply.
A short time later civil and criminal proceedings were brought against Billingsley, and he pleaded guilty at a hearing in Truro Crown Court.
The court heard how Billingsley's marriage had broken down since the inspection, and in order to pay back the money he owed he had been forced to sell his home and his restaurants.
Paul Burley, defending, said: "He has come to court expecting a custodial sentence.
"His good character will be lost, and he feels tremendous shame over this, he appreciates his acts were stupid."
Sentencing Billingsley to two and a half years in prison, Judge Christopher Harvey-Clark, QC, said: "In the early days you thought that by diverting the supply away from the meter you could get away with it.
"As time went on you continued to get away with it.
"Having had the supply discontinues and you having been told in effect do not do it again, you then had the nerve and the brazen aplomb to do it again - and you knew perfectly well that you should not do it.
"Had it not been for a further visit from the inspector no doubt you would have continued to do it."
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