A man cleared of killing a teenager who died in a house fire has been spared prison for bypassing an electricity meter at the property. Leah Casson was just 18 when she died in a blaze at Vicarage Street, North Shields, in January 2023.
Her mother, Danielle Johnson, 44, brother, Louis Casson, 22, and Calvin Smith, 38, had been due to stand trial accused of her manslaughter earlier this month, but that allegation was dropped by prosecutors. Johnson was given a conditional discharge for abstracting electricity, and Louis Casson was cleared of all charges.
Openly advertised meter bypassing
Smith has now been back at Newcastle Crown Court to be sentenced for abstracting electricity. Richard Wright KC, prosecuting, said "Calvin Smith had advertised quite openly on Facebook his ability and proficiency at the bypassing of electricity meters."
The court heard he had posted "Beat the cost of living crisis, free electricity, get your meter wired", adding that it was "free of charge and done in ten minutes". He had bypassed the meter at the property where he was living and did so at other addresses. He was in contact with Johnson's then-partner, who has since died, and through him was asked to bypass the meter at Vicarage Street.
The meter had been installed by Utilita, and their records revealed anomalies suggesting it had been interfered with from August 11 2022. By August 10 the meter was running low on credit and it reached zero in the early hours. Despite alerts from Utilita, no credit was added and the supply stopped. An hour later, the cover to the meter was removed, triggering an alert to Utilita, and shortly after that the power was turned off, meaning the main supply to the meter had been disrupted. Power was then restored, but from that point on August 11 until November 21, no electricity usage was recorded.
Dangerous method and sentencing
The court heard Smith had used the same method as that used at his home, which was "unusual" compared to other methods. Mr Wright said: "It was a method which was inherently dangerous, as is any unofficial bypassing. There was an obvious risk of electrocution and this also resulted in an element of thermal heating which would have created a slow burning effect risk of fire." The cost of diverted electricity has not been quantified but would have run into hundreds of pounds.
Smith, who has 17 previous convictions, including for wounding, drugs and dishonesty, pleaded guilty to abstracting electricity between August 10 and November 22. Sentencing him, Mr Justice Cotter said Smith pleaded guilty on the basis he was not involved in reconnecting the meter or a second bypassing which took place. He added: "The background for detection is a fatal fire. You were charged with others with the manslaughter of Leah Casson on the basis the bypassed meter caused a fire. On the morning of trial, the Crown offered no evidence."
The judge said the method of bypassing was dangerous and generated sufficient heat to melt fire-retardant materials, adding: "There was a significant risk of injury to people or damage to property." Mr Justice Cotter said he had to follow sentencing guidelines, adding: "Any personal view I may have, that there's too much of this sort of thing, doesn't matter. The pre-sentence report does you no favours. You are not Robin Hood. It's deliberate dishonesty which leaves people at risk. When fires happen in houses, people die. Whatever happened in this matter shows this happens."
Smith, of Peregrine Court, North Shields, was sentenced to 16 weeks suspended for two years with 200 hours unpaid work. The judge warned him: "There's been problems complying with orders in the past. I'm absolutely not the judge to be messed with. If you don't comply with this order, be absolutely sure, I will have very little sympathy. I've had 24 years of dog ate my homework excuses in terms of probation requirements. I'm the wrong judge. Comply with the order."
Mark McKone KC, defending, said Smith had missed a previous appointment after being the victim of a "significant beating".
Manslaughter charge dropped
As reported previously, prosecutors offered no evidence on the manslaughter charge after their own expert changed stance on the cause of the fire, meaning there was no longer a realistic chance of conviction. Mr Wright said at a previous hearing the manslaughter case had been based on the Crown proving that the defendants played a role in diverting electricity and that that was a dangerous act which caused the fire at the property, which resulted in Leah's death.
He said a number of expert reports had been compiled in the case and shortly before the trial, he received joint reports from two experts after they met. Given what they had then agreed, which involved the prosecution expert changing their original position after consulting with defence experts, he said he could no longer open the case as he had planned. Mr Wright told the court: "It raised a fundamental problem, which was whether or not there was a realistic prospect of conviction. Whether the Crown could realistically establish the cause of the fire was the electricity meter or a third party involvement or arson of some type. I don't say that because there is a positive case of an arsonist but the simple position is the Crown expert has moved to the position in which, first of all, they can't exclude that as a possibility and, more than that, they exclude an arc flash event in the joint report as having sufficient combustible effect to have caused this fire. That's a fundamental change in their report."
"They therefore agree the meter could have caused the fire but not by arc flash. It would have to be a slow heating event which is inconsistent with the rest of the evidence. The burns expert is being undermined by the other two experts. As a prosecutor, I have a responsibility to keep under constant review whether there remains a realistic prospect of conviction. Had this been the state of the evidence when charging advice was given, it would have been negative charging advice. We are not proceedings with manslaughter. We have concluded it's not right to proceed against Louis Casson for any offence, given his age, given the circumstances and given the fact the deceased was his sister."
Johnson admitted abstracting electricity on the basis she only found out it had been bypassed by Smith and her late partner in late November. She insisted it be reinstated on the same day she found out and it was. Sentencing her to a two-year conditional discharge, Mr Justice Cotter said: "Clearly the background to the case is tragic, the loss of your daughter. I take that into account."
