Consumers of tampered smart meters charged in court, one handed suspended sentence

Fourteen consumers were today charged in court with stealing electricity through their tampered smart meter, allegedly stealing almost €93,000 worth of electricity in total. One of the consumers, Alan Cachia, admitted to the charges brought against him. Magistrate Carol Peralta jailed him for two years suspended for two, ordered him to pay the €400 he owed Enemalta within six months and gave him a general interdiction. The consumers had criminal charges filed against them after they failed to regularise their positions in the time window allocated by the government. Robert Busuttil was charged with stealing over €17,000 worth of electricity at his grocery shop, Evergreen, in St Thomas Street, Floriana. Francis Xuereb was charged with stealing almost €500 in electricity at his residence in Santa Venera while Josef Cassar was charged with stealing €144 at his warehouse in Marsa. Mario Cassar, a butcher, was charged with having a tampered meter at his butcher shop, Wasp Butcher, and at his residence, both in Fgura, stealing €4,752 and €2,174 respectively. Joseph Gauci was charged with stealing almost €20,000 in electricity for his shop in Main Street, Dingli, while Sonia Cilia La...