Third man pleads guilty to tampering with smart meters

Richard Gauci, 47 of Rabat pleaded guilty to accepting bribes and defrauding Enemalta through the installation of smart meters which were tampered with in order to under-read consumption.

Magistrate Carol Peralta today started hearing four compilations of evidence against Richard Gauci, Martin Cilia La Corte, Anthony Mifsud and Manoel Micallef, all charged in connection with the Enemalta smart meter scam.

Enemalta employee pleads guilty

At the start of the sitting, lawyer Domenic Micallef told the court that his client Richard Gauci was pleading guilty to the charges.

Referring to recent law amendments concerning guilty pleas during a compilation of evidence, Magistrate Peralta chose not to hear six witnesses summoned today and postponed the case to 5 May for judgement. This was the first time these amendments were brought into action.

Modified meters under read by up to 90%

Next in the dock were 49-year old, Martin Cilia la Corte of Marsaskala and 50-year old Anthony Mifsud of Rabat.

The prosecution and the defence agreed that witnesses testifying in both cases would be heard once and the evidence inserted in both cases.

Taking the witness stand, inspector Daniel Zammit explained how in October 2013, he received a report from Enemalta over smart meters which registered a discrepancy in consumption.

A number of smart meters which had been swapped with other smart meters for no reason were tested, Zammit explained.

Equipment was brought over by Enemalta and engineers started doing onsite checks. A number of smart meters tested positive to under-read the consumption.

Three meters were sent over to Enel in Italy for further tests. Enel found that the internal circuit board was modified to read between 20% and 90% less. Three employees were arrested and arraigned. Police found that these employees were getting paid between €500-€1000 by account holders for every meter installed.

Further investigation revealed that a number of people, some of which were not Enemalta employees, were working as intermediaries for the scheme.

One of which was the accused Martin Cilia La Corte. The accused would approach account holders and inform them of the availability of smart meters which were tampered with to under read, and the cost of such installation.

Cross examined by Lawyer Gianella de Marco, the prosecuting inspector said that over 400 account holders were involved in the scam, and the police had spoken to around a 100 of them. Of these six or seven identified La Corte as the person who introduced them to the scam.

Enemalta’s internal auditor and an engineer recounted how the corporation came to know about the scam. A bench test of a meter in Attard under read by 70% and a meter installed In Fgura under read by 90%.

The common factor in these metes were that they were installed by Richard Gauci and had not been replaced in a roll-out but no reason could be traced why they weren’t changed.

Another meter which was tampered with was installed by the accused Anthony Mifsud. The meter installed at Mifsud's residence was also found to have been tampered with. A further three account holders pointed at Mifsud as being a middleman in the scam.

Tests done by Enel confirmed that the meters had been opened and had hardware modifications.

At the end of the sitting, Magistrate Peralta granted Martin Cilia La Corte bail after the prosecution explained that the amnesty period for account holders to come forward was now over. La Corte was released on deposit of €1,500 and personal guarantee of €8,500.

In the case of Anthony Mifsud, the court postponed the request for bail for Thursday, awaiting the reply from the Attorney General.

Richard Gauci was the third man to admit to charges in connection with the Enemalta tampered metre scandal. Over the past three months, Paul Pantalleresco, 55, Mqabba  and Carmel Vella, 55 of Zejtun, both pleaded guilty and were jailed for two years and handed a general perpetual interdiction. Ten other employees are suspended from office as the investigations continue.

Account holders testify

In a separate sitting, against Manoel Micallef, 35 of Mtarfa, Eric Montfort, from Enemalta's legal office exhibited a document dropping charges against Joseph Stivala, of Luqa; Carmelo Agius, of Qormi and George Mifsud of Qormi.

The three men, who had tampered theri meters, chose to come forward and regularise their position.

Caroline Zerafa, from the Attorney General exhibited certificates exempting the men from criminal proceedings.

First on the witness stand was George Mifsud. The witness met the accused in a coffee shop at Rabat and talk turned to furniture. Micallef had bought railings for a wardrobe and Mifsud offered to fit them for him.

"Upon learning that he worked at Enemalta, I told him that I still had the old meter installed. The accused replied that he could install a smart meter for me himself, and jokingly I told him to get me a meter which would charge less. However the accused told me there was a solution which would cost me €1,500. I agreed and some weeks later he came to my residence, changed the meter and took the money. I did not know what was different from other meters because it looked exactly the same as the rest".

Cross examined by Dr Joe Giglio, the witness told the court that on the Feast of St Paul's he got to know about the scheme and approached Enemalta to benefit from it.

Joseph Stivala, testified that he had called Enemalta requesting that a smart meter is installed at his residence. The accused called at his residence to install the meter.

"I complained that through the use of smart meters utility bills will be more expensive. He told me he could fit a meter which under reads in exchange for €1,300. He returned to my house later, replaced the meter and took my money", he said.

When he heard about the scheme granting account holders immunity he approached Enemalta about his meter.

The last account holder taking the stand today was Carmel Agius. He said he was grabbing a coffee from a shop near the old offices of SeaMalta when the talk turned to utility bills.

"A man approached me outside the shop and offered to reduce my electricity bill by 20% or 30%. I agreed to pay him €1,000 for this. Four days later he called at my residence and three hours later he installed a new meter."

Agius approached Enemalta and owed up to his deeds when he heard about the immunity scheme.

All three account holders identified the accused as the man who installed their modified meter.

The prosecution exhibited the three tampered smart meters belonging to the witnesses. Mifsud’s meter only registered 37%, Stivala’s 41% and Agius’s 39% of consumption.

Defence lawyer Joe Giglio argued that unfortunately the granting of bail in this case did not follow normal regulations, but "was governed by an administrative scheme with the sole aim that Enemalta recoups its monies, which apparently has not happened anyway". The lawyer informed the court he had filed a new request for bail. Magistrate Peralta postponed the case for Thursday, awaiting the reply from the Attorney General.