jailed if they tamper with its wires or equipment.

In an announcement in The Royal Gazette yesterday, the company reminded the public that it was a criminal offence to connect or tamper with cable television wires or equipment, including wires in homes and lock boxes outside of buildings.

Under the recently-passed 1993 Telecommunications Amendment Act, the company pointed out, the maximum fine for such an offence is $3,000 or two years in jail or both.

The law also provides for a $500 daily fine, it added.

But Cablevision said it would take no action against those guilty of such offences, provided they reported "unauthorised connections'' before next month.

And it urged subscribers to check the cable wires in their homes to ensure there were no unauthorised connections and to make sure they were paying for what they were receiving.

Any discrepancies should be reported immediately to the Cablevision office, the company added.

"All reports will be logged and followed up as soon as possible. As long as you are logged in there will be no penalties or Police action.'' But the new legislation, which became law after it passed in the Senate last Wednesday, is already drawing criticism.

Opposition Senate Leader Sen. Alex Scott last week told his colleagues that several people had complained to him about the law.

And Sen. Scott, who is a Cablevision shareholder, said it was not in the interests of Government nor Cablevision to bring action against subscribers.

"The public feel that the service received from Cablevision is not different than that received by radio, even though this is not the case technically,'' he said.

"Some folks feel they pay for the signal to come to their homes.

"Residents say I've done this (connected cable to other television sets) inside my residence at my expense and why should I not take off the information that is on that line.'' Sen. Scott also noted that people could hook up several phones in their homes to one telephone line. "Why is this different with cable?'' he asked.

He also asked how Cablevision would detect those breaking the law in their homes.

But Telecommunications Minister the Hon. Michael Winfield stressed that the law was designed for "major wilful damage outside of the home''.

"This (law) is to address the situation of people stealing the signal from major pieces of equipment and trying to seek gain illicitly,'' he said.

He stressed that his Ministry would not support "any action that goes after the householder''.