FORMER President George Vassiliou yesterday categorically denied reports of involvement in the electricity theft scandal.
A television station on Sunday claimed that Vassiliou – who head’s the island’s EU accession team – was named on a list of people who allegedly paid former Electricity Authority (EAC) technician, Michalis Masouras to tamper with electricity meters to indicate lower readings. Masouras has been in custody since December.
Vassiliou’s wife Androulla saw the report, and contacted the President of the EAC, George Georgiades yesterday morning to request a meeting.
Georgiades met with Vassiliou and his wife later in the day.
“Vassiliou asked me to send technicians to their premises to investigate the matter,” Georgiades said.
The EAC released a report yesterday afternoon stating that no evidence of tampering had been discovered on any of Vassiliou’s electricity meters on all three of the family’s premises.
Androulla Vassiliou also contacted the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to request an investigation into the source of the information.
“The police had no idea. After investigating the matter, they said it had not come from a leak in the Department. Apparently the technician’s associate has said that Masouras was using the names of well-known people to convince new customers,” said Androulla Vassiliou.
The head of CID, Tassos Panayiotou, said yesterday it was not the police’s place to reveal any information before they had evidence.
“It is not right for the police to reveal information without completing our investigations,” he said.
Panayiotou said they had no way of knowing who revealed the information.
Police are examining a 176-page notebook belonging to Masouras. It contains the names of prominent people and businesses, with meter readings and sums of money.
Another man, Charalambos Kitromilides, was arrested on January 23, after Masouras named him.
Kitromilides admitted to collaborating with Masouras to adjust an additional three meters police had not known about.
Masouras, who apparently operated across the island, has been in custody since December 19 last year when he was arrested in the Famagusta area after he admitted he had adjusted the clock on the meter to show less consumption.
The suspect got paid according to how many kilowatts of electricity he saved for the owner of the meter, police said.
Police said 61 meters in the Nicosia district were initially found to have forged EAC security seals.
When Masouras was arrested, police found two pincers used for sealing electricity meters as well as several used seals and 79 new ones, as well as his notebook.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
