Two men were sentenced to prison terms and fines for being behind a major Linky meter fraud. Thousands of people have been identified as their customers.
With l’constant increase in the price of electricityeveryone is looking to make energy savings. Most of the time, we will adopt simple actions such as turning off the lights, not leaving devices on standby or lowering the heating by one or two degrees. Some people have a much more radical approach since they do reduce their electricity consumption illegally. How ? Doing install a bypass system directly in their Linky meter.
An operation much more widespread than one imagines which has already resulted in the arrest of 5 people following the dismantling of a network. The scheme had something to seduce: for 1000 to 2500 €the consumption artificially fell by 75% in the best case. But crime doesn’t pay and two men were convicted of organized gang fraud. Étienne Manteaux, public prosecutor, specifies the penalties.
A 31-year-old technician received two years in prison including one with probationary suspension, as well as theobligation to reimburse Enedisa fine of €10,000there confiscation of valuables and thebanned from running a business for 15 years. His accomplice, a 46-year-old business broker, was sentenced to 1 year in prison with suspended probation. He must also reimburse Enedis of the loss of income caused by fraud.
Thousands of fraudsters identified after Linky meter scam was dismantled
The prosecutor indicated that “the openings of the meters are recorded by Enedis”, a step prior to the installation of the fraudulent bypass. The operator provided a list of all affected customers to the courts. This represents “tens of thousands of meters” in France. Of the criminal compositionsan alternative to prosecution, will be put in place in the coming weeks to issue fines.
Also read – Linky: why you should absolutely never cover your meter with aluminum foil
Étienne Manteaux “invites the people who had this device installed to contact the authorities themselves to regularize the situation, before the gendarmes come to observe the fraud”. We do not know the amount that will be requested from offenders, but Enedis points out that energy thefts like this “are punishable by heavy criminal penalties of up to 1 million euros in fines and 10 years of imprisonment.” .
Source: South-West