A former Enemalta division head had a tampered smart meter installed at his house, illegally cutting his electricity bills by more than half. 

Louis Attard was handed a 14-month prison sentence suspended for 28 months and €140 fine after a court found him guilty despite his "sly" attempts to disassociate himself from the crime. 

Mr Attard, who worked as Enemalta's Head of Accounts, got his wife's cousin, fellow Enemalta employee Anthony Mifsud, to arrange for technician Paul Pantallersco to install a tampered meter at his Mosta home, the court ruled. 

The meter was installed in February 2011 and replaced three years later, in 2014, around the time Mr Pantallersco was sentenced to two years in jail for bribery and installing more than 250 tampered smart meters. 

Tests by local Enemalta technicians, experts in Italy as well as an engineering professor had all confirmed that Mr Attard's meter had been tampered with

Tests by local Enemalta technicians, experts in Italy as well as an engineering professor had all confirmed that Mr Attard's meter had been tampered with. A conductive paste had been smeared onto part of the device, causing it to register a reading approximately 53 per cent lower than it should have been. 

Mr Attard denied any knowledge of the tampered meter, while Mr Mifsud testified that he had never asked Mr Pantallersco to change the meter in question. 

But magistrate Donatello Frendo Dimech did not believe their testimonies, noting that Mr Pantallersco had testified that Mr Mifsud "told me Louis Attard's meter was damaged and needed to be changed...he told me 'if you can sort something out, do so.'" 

The court also noted that Mr Attard's lawyers had failed to prove that his meter had truly been damaged, and had failed to explain why a top Enemalta official had to go through Mr Mifsud to arrange for it to be changed. 

"It is hard for the court to believe that the accused, Enemalta's Head of Accounts, did not realise that his bills were less than half what they should have been," the magistrate said. 

Mr Attard's job was to safeguard Enemalta's financial interests, the court said.

Instead, he had cheated his employer.