The great thing about being an anti-corruption campaigner is the absurdity of the conduct of the wicked, and the often hilarious comedy that can result as they twist and turn trying to manipulate situations that they themselves created. I hope you will enjoy a wry smile or two from the latest goings on with my friend Andrew Stephenson, and his struggle with Northern Powergrid (NPG) — a.k.a. “Northern Terrorgrid” — who decided to disconnect him from the electricity network as an extra-judicial punishment, only to have it go very sour for them.
NPG’s corrupt law firm gets caught out
The video above is Andrew refilling the generator on his small farm holding near Hartlepool on the North East coast of England. He has been severed from normal mains electricity for two years, yet refuses to be crushed by these bullies. The longer it goes on, the more awkward it gets for NPG. In our last episode he won a minor court victory, where the lawyers for NPG filed a fraudulent claim for costs, trying to crush Andrew financially. Instead, they got caught out by the judge, who implicitly censured them by denying them both the claim and leave to appeal.
However, lacking any sense of shame or integrity, they blundered on. It is worth bearing in mind that Andrew probably has a valid claim for negligence and trespass against NPG, not forgetting how they electrocuted his manhood. Damages could go into the hundreds of thousands of pounds at this point. Meanwhile, andrew received a demand from NPG solicitors Womble Bond Dickinson (WBD) for payment of £40k legacy court costs that have not already been properly assigned to a costs track (so could be zeroed out as a small claim).
WBD ignored all his statements about case law that indicate this is indeed a small claim and he owes them nothing, instead trying to get him to cough up £28k as a “discount”. A bit rich from someone who just tried to defraud you, and you don’t owe anything to anyhow! So Andrew filed a formal complaint with the solicitors about the fraud. Which they ignored — “stonewall” is the last resort of the corrupt when cornered, hoping you will give up or an external miracle intervention occurs. So now he’s filed a complaint with the Solicitors Regulation Authority, as WBD have a duty to respond to complaints. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes, as they say.
NPG used the pretext of a safety check to unilaterally disconnect Andrew from the grid, with no due process, leaving the property in an unsafe state. A court did not grant Andrew an injunction to force immediate reconnection. It should have done if it applied the law, but instead reflexively supported authorities in their corruption, with the judge outgunned by the NPG barrister. This doesn’t matter; it is a separate case from damages. However, WBD falsely claimed that damages are already decided under this first injunction judgement, which is another lie. So in order to perpetuate the fraud, they are happy for Andrew to not only be “in the dark and cold”, but to impoverish him via lawfare.
The shoe goes on the other foot
The tangled web doesn’t end there! A month ago, Andrew received a generic letter from NPG saying they were planning some engineering works in the area, and would have to disconnect his supply (!) to which they would connect him to a field generator (!!) in the interim. The temporary change is needed for a new housing development nearby and the burying of overhead cables. A small number of farms and homes, plus two mobile phone masts, needed a temporary generator supply at their location as you cannot back feed high grid voltage straight to them.
Soon after, he got a visit from a nice man from NPG with a beard and clipboard, inquiring about these same works, and could they put the emergency generator for the properties on the lane plus the phone mast on Andrew’s land. Quite reasonably, Andrew agreed in principle, contingent on himself being reconnected to the grid, and a written agreement in place that included compensation for any damage. The man agreed there would be compensation, as it is early in the year, and vehicle tracks would be left behind as the fields are wet. He took Andrew’s contact details and said they would be in touch. I suspect that astute readers can already sense where this story is going, as now Andrew has something NPG want, reversing the relationship dynamic.
NPG were due to switch to generator power on Andrew’s small lane on Tuesday of last week. On the Monday a hire company turned up with a generator, but nobody had made any arrangements. Andrew said they couldn’t put it on his land as NPG had failed to contact him, so he had not agreed to anything. Also a friend’s vehicle was parked in the way, and it would take time to move it. The workman said his sub-contractor would pass the message back to NPG via his own bosses. NPG were essentially trying to railroad Andrew into accepting a generator on his own land, in violation of his property rights, having already severed the cable that his own father had paid to install, and which NPG do not have uncontested ownership of.
Based on this incident, Andrew drafted an email to NPG’s complaints department, saying he was willing to host the generator (which offered him personally no benefit, only the mobile phone company and a neighbour). The condition was reconnection to the grid, and an undertaking not to sever it again. This was sent on the Monday afternoon, with an instruction to phone him, which of course nobody did. So on Tuesday, the day of the proposed high voltage line switchover, he phones the NPG customer hotline, who say they may be a little behind on processing emails.
The generator arrives again! But where to put it?
Meanwhile, around 11am on Tuesday, a brigade of commercial vehicles turns up: someone towing a generator from the hire company, an NPG van, and a car from NPG. All of the operational staff in this story are professional and courteous, so nothing in this sad tale reflects badly on them; it’s 100% a management issue. The engineer says they are there to connect the generator, to which Andrew responds they have to reconnect his cable first (if he is to enjoy any value from it!) — so he repeated the terms from the prior email to NPG.
The mobile phone mast loses signal as the grid is disconnected, meaning Andrew himself is now without normal cellular service, as well as no grid power. NPG say they cannot fix the severed cable to the house, even though it is only an hour’s work. The subject of compensation for access to Andrew’s land wasn’t discussed, including his time and effort involved, nor any compensation for damage. They begged Andrew to be allowed to just let the generator go on his land, stating they will sort out the contract later (!!!). However, two years ago they delivered an emergency meter to the house, but rather than install it, management overruled and disconnected him permanently. So he cannot take them at their word. Would you?
Andrew has a history of helping people involved in building projects to negotiate far better deals from NPG, and has threatened them with monopolies investigation for their commercial practises. So the (potentially criminal revenge) motive for disconnecting him is clear. Until this point the neighbours were also not keen on hosting a generator on their land, aware of Andrew’s plight. NPG even threatened to cut the farmer’s house off if he refused permission, and leave him with no electricity, being told “the power is going off in any event”. Are you seeing why they are colloquially called “Northern Terrorgrid” in our private chats? They operate more like a mafia cartel than a public utility.
Now, this neighbour has an ongoing property development project elsewhere where he has been extorted £26k to connect 9 properties over a trivial distance by NPG, and did not want to queer this other programme of work by annoying NPG. So the neighbour allowed NPG to put the generator in the narrow (privately owned) farm lane outside his home, and connect to his overhead pole. However, this would have inconvenienced any farm traffic and blocked emergency vehicles if they had ever had to come, so as a gesture of goodwill and in respect of public safety Andrew said they could put it on his own land after all.
Generators come, generators go
One open barrier, one set of vehicle keys, 50m of armoured outdoor cable, and the generator was all set up on Andrew’s land, ready for the power on the main line to go off on Wednesday for the main works. Now, I may have mentioned at the outset that these stories trend towards farce over thriller, so on the Tuesday night Andrew sees a flashing light come up the lane. Another workman has arrived at 10.30pm with yet another generator! It turns out it isn’t in the right location, but has to serve the mobile phone masts accessed from the other side of fields. Let’s just hope the farmer was up late for lambing season…
Then Wednesday comes, and a fuel bowser arrived to refuel the generator. Apparently they don’t do any maintenance checks on them while running, but as they tend to use up lubricating oil, if something goes wrong, the generator is wrecked, so they just get another one. That said, all seems well with the generator humming away on Andrew’s land, powering his neighbour and the mast, until… Thursday comes, and the same young engineer from NPG comes back unexpectedly.
“You want us to move your generator?” he asks Andrew.
“No.”
“We have had a call. We have to move the generator!”
“Not the one over there?” Andrew suggests, pointing to the distant field where the mobile phone masts are being serviced via a different generator. “I don’t break my word, you can keep it here until Saturday. You can’t put it on the lane now… my neighbour hasn’t agreed yet.”
NPG want to win at any cost, not do what’s right
So the engineer says he will get confirmation of his instructions. Meanwhile Andrew texts him saying he did not request its removal, they can keep it there until Saturday, and that he doesn’t want yet more disruption of people on his land with equipment and moving cables when he has work to do — especially having been disturbed late one night as he went to bed with a generator that wasn’t for him. (All this time, Andrew is on his own private generator, remember, being forcibly removed from the grid that is now harassing him for access to his own land, so as to supply other people.)
The engineer comes back: “No, we have been told it MUST be moved off your property. They really don’t like you. The very big boss has told them to get the generator off your land, and it doesn’t matter what it costs.”
“But it is already there, and only meant to be there until Saturday.”
“Yeah, I can’t understand it either.”
So Andrew explained the case history, how he negotiated for people doing business with NPG, and how NPG had spent £50k with lawyers and well as their own time punitively keeping him without electrical power, but not powerless in the greater sense. They are clearly fearful of something. But then comes the icing on the narrative cake! After letting them in to move the generator, they ask if they can attach wires to his own pole, part of his property, and not a grid asset. “Sure, as long as you reconnect my cable!”
Of course, they won’t. So they go to the neighbour, now desperate to find a way not to do business with Andrew, no matter how immoral or the reputational cost. Can they put the generator right outside the neighbour’s house? No. Cables through doors and windows? No. Every possible avenue is explored, other than doing the obvious deal with Andrew. Eventually the generator is relocated in a gateway on his neighbour's land, but with cables over the edge of his own land, with no access agreement or way-leave. NPG even trampled through Andrew’s hedge, knocking a small tree over when they were finished with the generator.
One rule for thee, another for me
The picture above says it all. NPG have their cables passing onto Andrew’s land, without permission or compensation, while having severed him from the power grid unlawfully. NPG’s repeated (attempted) entry onto Andrew’s land and laying of cabling without agreement, compensation, or formal arrangement constitutes continuing trespass. These actions not only risk civil liability, but also regulatory scrutiny under Ofgem’s standards of conduct — especially if other customers have faced similar abuses.
What can you say about this kind of commercial and institutional insanity? It reflects the narcissistic abuse I have often written about, where the abuser (in this case NPG as frontman for energy gangsters at Octopus and Haste) constructs a false reality and nothing will budge it until total destruction arrives. Yet what they fear most is exposure, which is why our job is to offer our testimony and share it. The double standard has to be documented clearly, where one party’s property rights are over-extended, while another party’s are ignored. More than litigation, documentation is what ends this kind of injustice.
Ultimately this is far more than a legal dispute, it is a civil and human rights crisis. NPG disconnected Andrew without due process, and have never shown a valid warrant, the lack of which is demonstrated via video evidence. This act is in breach of their statutory duties under the Electricity Act 1989 and associated Ofgem regulations, causing foreseeable harm. The ongoing disconnection arguably violates Article 8 (private and family life) and possibly Article 3 (inhuman or degrading treatment) under the European Convention of Human Rights, especially given the electricity is essential. There is also possible criminal negligence from the danger posed by the earth cable being severed but left connected in the house.
A legitimate enterprise run by honourable men would never behave this way. It is a failure of corporate, industry, and national governance that something like this can happen, and go on so long. Nobody should be without access to the power grid in 2025 unless they have engaged in an extreme act, such as physical sabotage. Andrew’s only “crime” was a lawful transfer of billing contract from a licensed major supplier to an unlicensed micro supplier. As the original claim to remedy this should have been allocated to the small claims track, Andrew should never have been exposed to high costs for a legal remedy. If NPG have any sense, they will draw a line under this PR disaster, reconnect him, and reimburse him for all the expenses incurred.
Otherwise, the “Northern Terrorgrid” name might stick…
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