A young man racked up €28,000 worth of mobile phone calls before his local service provider could issue his first bill.

According to company sources, the man was a drug addict who set up a number of accounts on contract, receiving several free mobile phones in the process.

He sold the connected phones for around €200 each to other people, mostly African immigrants, to make some quick cash which he used to buy drugs. Since those who bought the phones could not be traced, they made an enormous number of international calls - mostly to African destinations - spending an average of 65c per minute during just one month.

By the time the mobile telephony company realised what was happening and shut down the man's accounts, the bill was already astronomical. The issue was eventually settled out of court and a private agreement was reached determining how the bill would be paid.

Company sources said credit control procedures were now in place to avoid a repeat of the incident, which took place last year. Customers are now being contacted when a certain call limit is exceeded.

Although the mobile phone operator preferred to remain anonymous, it said all companies were exposed to such 'abuse' when customers discovered loopholes in the system.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com