ARMS withdraws €22,000 bill issued to a single 63-year-old man

Despite the fact that the elderly man had been complaining with the authorities that there was a mistake in the bill, it was only after l-orizzont asked ARMS to investigate that the bill was withdrawn.

The old man told newspaper l-orizzont that in July, he had received a bill of €22,417.60 which covered from November 2009 and June 2010.

This bill, which the elderly man had never paid, had been accumulating from March 2008, when he had received a bill of around €7,000.

When he received the bill, he had protested at the customer care office at Enemalta Corporation, which at the time was still responsible for bill issuing together with the Water Services’ Corporation (WSC).

The person who had received the complaint at the time had told him that that there surely must have been a mistake and told him “to ignore the bill and not pay it”.

However, the elderly man did not put his mind at rest as he continued to receive consecutive utility bills until he finally received the huge bill for €22,417.60.

The elderly man had also presented his case to the Ombudsman around 10 months ago, l-orizzont reported.

While the Ombudsman’s office had confirmed that the case was being investigated, he was informed that ARMS had told him that the company’s “investigative board” had not met.

When contacted by the paper about the huge bill sent to this elderly man, ARMS’ public relations spokesperson Sean Barbara had announced that the bill had been reversed.

Barbara told l-orizzont that the company had identified “a leakage at the place as well as a fault in the consumer’s electricity meter”