R.I. Gen. Laws
Rhode Island General Laws

R.I. Gen. Laws § 11-35-9 (2026)

Bypassing electric meter — Use of electricity with intent to defraud

✓ text as last checked Sept. 2026 (this copy records no edition or section history)
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Every person who, with intent to injure or defraud any person, persons, association, or corporation generating, conducting, using, or supplying the electric current, either for the purposes of his, her, its or their own business or for the purpose of selling the electric current at a stipulated rate of payment, shall make or cause to be made any wire or other instrument or contrivance and connect it or cause it to be connected with any electric wire, appliance, apparatus or appurtenance used for or in connection with the wires or apparatus employed for generating, conducting, using, or supplying electric current, in any manner that is calculated either to waste and dissipate the electric current or to supply the electric current to any lamp, burner, heater, machine, motor or other apparatus or appliance whatsoever, without the electric current passing through a meter provided by the person, persons, association, or corporation and used for registering the quantity so passing through, or without the consent of the person, persons, association, or corporation to the connections, or who shall otherwise use any electric current with the intent to defraud the person, persons, association or corporation of payment, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be imprisoned not exceeding thirty (30) days or be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500). In any prosecution under this section proof that any of the acts specified in this section was done on or about the premises occupied by the defendant, or proof of the presence on or about the premises of any wire or other instrument or contrivance which effects the waste or dissipation or the diversion of electric current without the electric current being measured or registered by a meter provided for it or without the consent of the person, persons, association, or corporation, shall be prima facie evidence that the defendant committed the acts, or aided or abetted in their commission, maliciously and with intent to injure or defraud.

Notes of Decisions
Cited in 1 case, 2006–2006 · leading case: Narragansett Elec. Co. v. Carbone, 898 A.2d 87 (R.I. 2006).
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Narragansett Elec. Co. v. Carbone, 898 A.2d 87 (R.I. 2006). · cites it 3× “We see no persuasive rationale for holding that electrical current may be fraudulently consumed or diverted, but that those whose electricity was wrongly appropriated may not recover the loss of the value of that electricity in a civil action for conversion.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.