PN deputy leader Beppe Fenech Adami insisted this afternoon that consumers who made use of tampered electricity meters could hardly be considered 'small fish' when they had benefited to the tune of an average €30,000 each.

He told a press conference that the calculation was based on the fact that the government had said that some 1,000 smart meters had been tampered, and Enemalta had lost revenue of €30m per year as a result.

Such figures, he said, further confirmed how wrong the government was when it granted such consumers an 'amnesty' by sparing them police investigations and court action if they owned up.

The government has been saying it had decided on that course of action because it wanted to catch the 'big fish' behind the scam.

Dr Fenech Adami insisted that in terms of the law, the police were obliged to carry out their investigations for bribery and take all those responsible to court.

Enemalta regulations written in 2006 provided for the waiving of court action solely for theft of electricity, he said, but in this case, these persons had not acted alone but had bribed other people to get their tampered meters. They were therefore, at least, accomplices in the crime.

When the 2006 legal notice was written, it applied for individual cases since smart meters did not exist at the time. 

Dr Fenech Adami also denied Labour and government claims that in 2006 the PN government had given people who stole electricity an amnesty as long as they paid a Lm100 fine. He said those involved had been required to pay that fine along with an estimate of the value of the electricity they had stolen, plus interest. They also paid for new meters and had their power cut off until full settlement was made.

Jason Azzopardi, Opposition spokesman for home affairs, quoted different sections of the criminal code to insist that the police had a duty to prosecute all those involved in bribery.

"It takes two to tango" he said with regard to bribery, and being an accomplice was also a criminal act. He asked if the governemnt was protecting anyone by opting to waive court action.

The prime minister could not say he was fighting corruption when he put himself above the law and decided that people involved in bribery would not face prosecution, Dr Azzopardi said.