Five consumers who paid for their electricity meters to be rigged were yesterday pardoned by the Attorney General and Enemalta in exchange for their testimony against two technicians.

Enemalta representatives told Magistrate Carol Peralta that, as empowered by law, the chairman was renouncing all criminal action against the five consumers who only paid for part of the electricity they had consumed.

A representative from the Attorney General’s office informed the court that no criminal action would be taken against them.

The Attorney General invoked a provision in the law that gives him the power to exempt “any person from criminal proceedings” in return for “all the facts known to him relating to any corrupt practice or any offence connected therewith before the Commission (Permanent Commission Against Corruption) and/or any court of criminal jurisdiction...”

This left Mario Vella, David Galea, Anthony Bugeja, Robert Vella and Louise Ciappara free to take the witness stand against the accused men.

The technicians, Emanuel Micallef and Richard Gauci, stand charged with accepting bribes to install the rigged meters and were paid an average of €1,200 for each installation.

Another employee, Paul Pantalleresco, admitted to the same charges and was jailed for two years. A fourth, Carmel Vella, from Żejtun, admitted bribery and defrauding Enemalta of some €3,000. He was remanded in custody ahead of sentencing next week.

Taking the witness stand, carpenter Mario Vella, from Qormi, said his wife introduced him to Mr Micallef, who used to frequent her hair salon.

He said his wife told him she had been complaining about energy bills and Mr Micallef offered a solution: he suggested they take a tampered meter.

Mr Micallef wanted €1,600 in cash for the service to be paid on installation.

Mr Vella said Mr Micallef turned up at his house and removed their meter. They were left without a meter for two or three days although they still had electricity supply. Their energy bills then started to come in lower.

When asked why he reported himself to Enemalta, he said it was to benefit from the amnesty.

The second customer to testify, David Galea, from Attard, said he had recently purchased a flat when Mr Micallef turned up to install a meter.

During the installation, Mr Micallef asked him if he wanted a meter that would register a lower consumption of electricity and he paid Mr Micallef €1,200 for it.

The new meter was registering half of the actual consumption.

When asked why he reported himself to Enemalta, he said it was to benefit from the amnesty

Customer Robert Vella testified that his original smart meter had problems due to a blown fuse and when Mr Gauci turned up at the house to replace it he offered him a tampered meter to save money on bills.

Mr Gauci asked him for €1,200 but he said he could not afford that and they eventually settled on €1,000.

Another customer, Anthony Bugeja, from Rabat, said he had heard people in the town talking about meters being tampered with and saying that Mr Gauci, who was from Rabat, could help out, so he went to look for him.

At one point, lawyer Joseph Giglio asked Mr Bugeja why he was testifying by reading out from a sheet of paper and who had written it.

Mr Bugeja said it had been written by one of the police inspectors investigating the case.

Dr Giglio exclaimed that this was unacceptable, while Magistrate Carol Peralta said he expected better from them.

Inspector Daniel Zammit said that what was written reflected what Mr Bugeja had told officers in his police statement and nothing more.

Mr Gauci’s testimony was then cancelled and he re-testified, giving the same version of events.

The last customer to testify, Louise Ciappara, from Naxxar, said she could recall her neighbours telling her that Enemalta employees had gone to their street to install smart meters but she was not home and they left.

She recalled feeling angry at the fact that the installers had not even left a note to inform her when they would return.

A short time later she saw an Enemalta van in Naxxar and stopped to speak to them to ask why they had not left a note.

The accused, Mr Gauci, said he would install it himself.

They agreed upon a date and he called at her house. As he was fetching something from his van he called her over and asked if she wanted a tampered meter.

She asked him if she would get into trouble and he said no.

He requested €1,000 but she said she could not afford that and eventually gave him €500 in cash.

She said she doubted whether the meter was in fact tampered with as her bills remained relatively unchanged.

Enemalta later confirmed that the meter had in fact been tampered with.

Dr Giglio and lawyer Dominic Micallef asked for bail for their clients, to which the prosecution objected on the grounds that there were hundreds more customers who could potentially be influenced by the accused before coming forward to benefit from the amnesty.

Dr Giglio said that this was an unacceptable argument to make and Magistrate Peralta agreed with him.

The magistrate said he was bound by law to notify the Attorney General of the bail request before a decision was given.

The accused have now spent three weeks behind bars.