A Bitcoin trader was arrested for allegedly fiddling his electricity meter to mine cryptocurrency.

Rawee Keawwongwan, 44, raised suspicion after the electricity bill at his two-story townhouse came out extremely low for several consecutive months in Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand.

Officers raided the property on Tuesday February 8 and found that he had illegally modified the electric metre at his home which lowered his bill down to 100 baht per month.

Two energy-consuming Bitcoin mining rigs were also found inside his air-conditioned room during the inspection which revealed he had been stealing electricity.

Provincial Electrical Authority Ronnachai Aasanapan said: ‘We thought that the metre in the house was broken because the bill was very low.

‘When we checked, our staff discovered that the cables were deliberately cut to make it appear that the household had only been consuming less energy.’

Ronnachai then reported the incident to the landlord and was reported to the local police station who made an arrest on February 8.

Rawee was taken to the police station who later admitted modifying his electrical connections. He said he only did that because he wanted to ‘get rich fast after his girlfriend dumped him and lost his job'.

Power theft in Thailand is punished with imprisonment up to five years and fined up to 100,000 baht or a little more than 2,200 GBP.