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 Corte, whose former husband, Martin, is facing criminal proceedings over the smart meter scandal, was charged with having a meter that was under registering electricity by 10 per cent, amounting to some €500 worth of electricity.

Matthew Dimech was charged with stealing almost €6,000 worth of electricity at Cafe' Du Brazil in Vittoriosa while Gordon Micallef was charged with stealing some €11,000 in electricity at Gordon's Discount Store in Qormi.

Lewis Caruana was charged with stealing €3,300 worth of electricity at his rabbit farm in Zurrieq where inspectors found that even though his smart meter was damaged after it had been struck by lightning, the service box had been tampered with.

Michael Darmanin was charged with stealing over €15,500 in electricity at his old City Pub in Vittoriosa while Louis Attard was charged with stealing €845 worth of electricity at his residence in Mosta.

Redent Zammit was charged with stealing €3,800 at his business, Love Pizza in Fgura while Jonathan Compagno was charged with stealing over €7,300 at his confectionary in Fgura.

The cases, which were heard in quick succession in a marathon four-hour sitting before magistrate Peralta, were deferred to December.

Lawyers Stephen Tonna Lowell,  Shazoo Ghaznavi, Franco Galea, Patrick Valentino, Charmaine Cherrett, Kris Busietta, Edward Gatt, Daniela Mangion and Lucio Sciriha appeared for the consumers.

Lawyers Franco Debono and Angie Muscat appeared for Enemalta.

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