A Regina business owner received a 12-month community sentence Friday and was ordered to pay SaskEnergy $20,000 for stealing natural gas over several years.
Stacey Getz was earlier found guilty of theft over $5,000 for stealing natural gas after SaskEnergy disconnected service to his business, Getz Enterprises Ltd., due to non-payment.
The court found Getz stole at least about $8,500 in natural gas annually from 2008 until 2011 to fuel various appliances in his welding, fabrication and mechanical shops.
Getz used a hollow propane tank to hide the connection to the SaskEnergy gas line on his property, which he had rigged with rubber hoses, the court heard.
“This was a serious offence. It required planning, and was continued for at least two years and eight months. It was carefully covered up,” Queen’s Bench Justice Brian Barrington-Foote said in his sentencing decision.
“Mr. Getz suggests that he was not driven by greed, but by the fact that theft was the only way he could stay in business. There is little distinction between those two concepts in this case.”
Getz will be subject to a curfew for the first six months of his community sentence and must make restitution payments of at least $250 a month to SaskEnergy.
In addition, police will be allowed to search his property on demand without a warrant to determine whether there’s any theft of utilities.
