The owner of an electric Tesla car in Oud-Beijerland took an unusual route to powering up his vehicle, by attaching it to an extension cable and then to a street lamp rather than a charging station.

His action was spotted by police who arrested him for stealing electricity. ‘We are interested in what he has to say,’ the local force said on Instagram. ‘The owner can tell his story down at the station.’

According to the AD newspaper, the owner might have been prompted to take this somewhat risky approach to charging a car because of soaring electricity prices.

With current prices of 84 cents per kWh, charging the car to travel 100 kilometres would cost about €12.60, the paper said. And that makes electric cars, in many cases, more expensive to run than petrol ones.

Stealing electricity carries a maximum jail term of four years or a fine of up to €100,000. According to grid operator Netbeheer Nederland in 2019, some 114 million kWh of electricity were stolen from the grid, mainly by marijuana cultivators.