Wedding hall owner acquitted of electricity theft

Pierre Peter Abela, the owner of a wedding hall in Hal Far has been acquitted of tampering with his electricity meter.

A court heard how Enemalta technicians only found one out of the four meter seals broken, indicating that the electricity meter had not been tampered with.

The 55-year old, from Attard, was charged in 2009 of stealing around €7,500 worth of electricity at his wedding hall between October 2000 and October 2005. Following a surprise inspection at the wedding hall, Enemalta said that the three-phase meter was “tampered with” and under-registering 33% of its actual electricity consumption.

Abela denied the charge and told the court that he had repeatedly contacted Enemalta over the years because of damages incurred by energy supply faults. He said that he first contacted Enemalta in 2000 over fluctuations and surges in the power supply. He contacted the energy corporation several times afterwards, as the problem kept resurfacing, but Enemalta kept insisting that there was nothing wrong with the meter. One time, Abela formally wrote to the energy corporation that he was holding it responsible for a damaged air conditioning system. He also told the court that the power fluctuations could have damaged the meter.  

Following an inspection in 2003, Enemalta technicians found that one of the four seals on the electricity meter was broken and that the part known as the ‘shunt’ had moved. Abela was told that the meter was under-registering and was made to pay Enemalta €2,300. Criminal action was later taken against him and he was charged in court for electricity theft in 2009.

Magistrate Consuelo Scerri Herrera heard how the shunt could not have been tampered with unless all four seals had been broken. She also heard how the allegedly tampered three-phase meter had been replaced and that the new meter was actually registering a lower average electricity consumption.

Scerri Herrera said that these two facts disproved electricity-tampering claims and cleared Abela of all charges.

Inspector Carlos Cordina prosecuted.