The Jamaica Public Service (JPS) has reported 12 more arrests across the island as it carries out its intensified anti-theft programme.

The arrests took place between February 27 and March 7 in the Corporate Area, St James and Manchester as a result of operations in communities in these parishes.

This brings to 56 the number of arrests made across the island for the illegal abstraction of electricity.

Included among the St James arrests is an operator of a guest house in the community of Adelphi.

The guest house was found to have a sophisticated device hidden inside the wall of the building to prevent most of the electricity consumption from being detected.

Clamp down

Meanwhile, as JPS continues to carry out operations to clamp down on electricity theft in high-risk communities, the company has also been working to ensure that public lighting is maintained.

Special attention has been brought to bear on the Majesty Gardens community, where 2,800 illegal connections were removed in a single day's operation.

JPS teams had noted that streetlights and JPS infrastructure had been damaged due to an overload of illegal connections tapping into the structures.

JPS has taken steps to replace these street lights - 18 in all, with anti-theft safety features.

The company continues to urgently appeal to persons who are not paying for the electricity they consume, to go to the nearest customer service office to make arrangements to become regularised.