Sixty per cent of applicants for the amnesty given on smart meter tampering were businesses, Enemalta's CEO said this morning. There was one case where one person had five smart meters.

Speaking on TVAM this morning, engineer Frederick Azzopardi said that by the time the six-week period for applications closed yesterday, there were between 400 and 430 applicants. However, that number could rise slightly because enquiries continued to be made up to the end.

In terms of the amnesty, applicants who admit to having used tampered meters will have to pay for their stolen electricity plus a fine, but they will not be taken to court.

The authorities had initially said that up to 1,000 smart meters had been tampered.

Mr Azzopardi said investigations were continuing. Some of the meters which were investigated were found not to have been tampered. There were also cases of applicants for the amnesty who had not been under suspicion.

The CEO said that some 60 per cent of applicants were businesses and the rest were residential. Enemalta is expected to recover over €10m in lost revenue.

He said that while theft of electricity in 2012 was estimated at €30m, this had been carried out through various ways, not just smart meters, and the corporation was investigating those other methods and expected to recover funds that way too.