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A man is suspected of having modified hundreds of Linky meters on behalf of «clients» by promising to lower their electricity bill. He was arrested in Valenciennes and will be tried for theft from Enedis.

Suspected of having acted throughout the national territory, this man was arrested on September 14 in Valenciennes while he was traveling to carry out “an intervention”Lieutenant-Colonel Vincent Audon, deputy to the Research Section (SR) of Lille, told AFP.

Aged around thirty, a salesman by profession and living in Seine-et-Marne, he was identified by the gendarmerie’s cybercrime unit, said Lieutenant-Colonel Audon. The unit had spotted his Snapchat profile “rather well referenced” Who “offered his services quite openly”.

For a fee “200 to 400 euros”this man was carrying out a manipulation on the Linky meter which allowed the electricity bill to be reduced, the police officer explained.

Investigation conducted by the gendarmerie’s cybercrime department

“It’s a fairly simple manipulation, unfortunately.”leading to the meter not capturing all the consumption of the home concerned, explained Lieutenant-Colonel Audon. The man promised his customers a reduction in their bill of 50 to 70%. This manipulation did not only involve the buttons on the meter, “There were connectors and cables”which “can be very dangerous”Mr. Audon stressed. Investigators believe that this man “was active since the end of 2022”The gendarmes were supported by the electricity network manager Enedis, who provided technicians to check the meters. The suspect is summoned to appear before the Valenciennes Criminal Court on February 4, 2025.

He will be judged for “theft aggravated by two circumstances, fraudulent access and fraudulent maintenance in an automatic data processing system and attack on an automatic data processing system with risk of endangering others”Contacted by AFP, Enedis, which did not specify the amount of the damage, indicated that it had filed a complaint and was constituting a civil party.

The manager says he has noticed for over a year “a significant increase in cases of fraud”an increase “reinforced by the appearance on social networks of various offers proposing to set up these fraudulent devices”. “Electricity meter fraud is electricity theft and it is illegal”recalls Enedis.