Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/258814
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 12 FEBRUARY 2014 3 CHRISTIAN MANGION A 28-year-old Bulgarian national will this morning be arraigned over the murder of Serbian national Dragoljub Kristic on Tuesday early morning. Born in Grocka, Serbia and living in Malta since late last year, Kristic worked in the construction indus- try. He was killed in the common area on the first floor of an apart- ment in Triq il-Merluz, St Paul's Bay, with a single penknife stab to his heart. The fatal wound was inflicted at around 2:15am by one of the people who hours earlier, had invited the Serb to his house. Addressing a crime conference yesterday, Assistant Commissioner Silvio Valletta explained that a Bul- garian suspect and two Macedoni- an nationals met the Serbian victim on Sunday night, and invited him to continue partying at their apart- ment. The group had never met their host before. The loud music carried into the early hours of Tuesday, prompting their irritating landlord to inform his Bulgarian tenant that unless the music is switched off, he would trip the electricity mains. Moments later, as his warnings were ignored, the landlord switched off the apart- ment's power supply. The Bulgarian was said to have assumed that it was his guests who switched off the main supply. An argument ensued during which the Bulgarian stabbed the victim once with a penknife. Kristic died from a single puncture wound to his heart. Officers retrieved the weapon from inside the premises. The Bulgarian national is also expected to face charges of keeping an unlicensed weapon. The police are still investigat- ing what took place in the time from when the electricity meter went off to the moment the victim was stabbed. While the argument kicked off on the third floor, the victim was killed two floors down, in the common area on the first floor. The police are not ruling out that the victim tried to escape from his aggressor who caught up with him on the lower level and stabbed him. Investigators are also weighing the possibility that one of the Bulgarians was also involved in the argument. "Over the years we've had murders over more frivolous matters than a meter being switched off, however investigators are still looking into the possibility of other reasons why the argument escalated into a murder," Assistant Commissioner Silvio Valletta said. "The landlord had previous arguments with the tenant over the playing of loud mu- sic. The apartment is in a residen- tial area and one has to appreciate we don't live in a jungle were every- one does what he feels like." The Police were informed of the murder by a possible eyewitness who called at the Qawra police station. The three foreign nation- als inside the apartment were ar- rested by the police. A doctor from the Mosta Health Centre certified Kristic dead on the scene. The 28-year-old Bulgarian na- tional will be arraigned this morn- ing before Magistrate Claire Sta- frace. News Tampered meters was 'expert's job' MIRIAM DALLI 1,000 smart meters were found to have been tampered with, resulting in rampant electricity theft Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi revealed yesterday evening. A highly sophisticated system in- stalled in the smart meters enabled the meters to record less energy units than what was actually being consumed. The police is carrying out its investigation. "We suspect it is an inside job and three Enemalta employees have been suspended. I am very angry at what's happening, especially since the theft saw the involvement of the corporation's employees," Mizzi said. On a yearly basis, Enemalta reg- isters 10% in non-technical loss- es where each one percent costs around €1 million. Although there are different ways that electricity can be stolen, a task force set up within Enemalta de- tected a highly sophisticated sys- tem used to tamper with the smart meters. The suspicious smart meters were sent to Italian energy corporation Enel. According to the minister, the company reported that there was nothing wrong with the smart meters. But further tests resulted in the discovery of a system which recorded less units than actually consumed. It turns out that whoever did the "expert" job managed to tamper with the smart meters without breaking them. According to En- emalta officials, even the corpora- tion's own officials cannot open the meters without breaking it. "I am personally very angry at this and I am issuing a serious warning that abuse will not be tolerated," Mizzi said. The energy minister warned that anyone stealing electricity will be caught, "if not today, tomorrow". "We are very serious in our com- mitment to fight theft and we will not rest until this racket stops. All our findings have been passed on to the police so it can proceed with its criminal investigation," he said, adding that the previous adminis- tration failed to carry a crackdown on the thefts despite the repeated warnings it received. In 2012, Enemalta had reassured consumers that system provided Enemalta and ARMS with data that can be used to identify attempts, whether successful or not, of tam- pering of the meters and the soft- ware tools to carry out such analy- sis. The energy minister added that Enemalta will also seek to retrieve back what it lost from the thefts, based on a legal notice which spells out the procedure and formula. Different consumers have found different ways to tamper with the smart meter, the easiest reportedly is the three-phase. At the start of the smart meter rollout, it was re- ported that a special magnet, sold for between €300 and €500, con- trols the rate of consumption. The single-phase meter – of the sort that were caught in the crackdown – was supposedly more complicated to tamper with. mdalli@mediatoday.com.mt Stabbed to death in argument over electricity outage Arrested over Marsa argument A 34-year-old Maltese national was placed under arrest yesterday after threatening four Syrian nationals, with a shotgun at a garage in Marsa. At around 6pm, the police were informed about the argument off Garibaldi Street, in the area between the Marsa Industrial Estate and the Addolorata cemetery. Preliminary on site investigations revealed that four Syrian nationals were inside a garage, where an argu- ment ensued with the Maltese ag- gressor, who was said to have fetched a shotgun from his vehicle. No one was injured in the incident. Victim Dragoljub Kristic Police Superintendents (from left): Martin Bayliss, deputy commissioner Ray Zammit, Assistant Commissioner Silvio Valletta, police inspectors Chris Pullicino and Keith Arnaud Energy Minister Konrad Mizzi (centre): "We suspect an inside job"