For about a year, police authorities are said to have been tracking the ring that sold stolen electricity to well-known businesspeople and owners of popular restaurants and entertainment venues, having identified over 600 cases across a total of 14 prefectures.
What makes this story even more significant is that the electricity theft did not, as is customary, involve conventional meters or utility poles operated by HEDNO, but rather the ring tampered with state-of-the-art digital meters, selling its services to both residential customers and businesses.
In practice, the ring ensured reduced electricity consumption for its 105 “clients,” charging each between 2,000 and 6,000 euros, depending on the amount of electricity they avoided paying for.
Among them are influential and well-known businesspeople, such as the owner of a popular restaurant in the Vouliagmeni area and a café-restaurant in the Voula area. The same list also includes owners of gas stations as well as stores belonging to a well-known fast-food chain.
According to reports, the dismantling of the ring is linked to the smart meters themselves. The identification of the three individuals believed to be the ringleaders of the ring was made possible precisely because the meters are smart, sources at HEDNO explain to euro2day.gr.
In other words, as a person familiar with the case explains, they were identified because they tampered with the software of the smart meters, which, being connected to the HEDNO control center, “triggered an alarm” that immediately notified the back office of the operator’s systems.
Coordination with HEDNO
However, at the urging of police authorities—in order to ensure a thorough investigation—time was allowed for the fraud to continue, so that the Organized Crime Division (DAOE) of the Hellenic Police could have the opportunity to monitor the ring’s activities and unravel the case. In other words, this is a case that has been known to the authorities for many months but had been kept secret.
This explains why the value of the stolen electricity has reached 9 million euros. This is due both to the high consumption levels of the business owners in the restaurant and entertainment sectors who benefited from the fraud, and to the fact that this went on for nearly… a year, according to reports.
When asked what 9 million euros represents in terms of the amount of stolen electricity, conservative estimates put the figure at approximately 60,000 megawatt-hours. This figure includes both the cost of the stolen electricity and the penalty imposed by HEDNO—that is, administrative costs and the labor hours of crews required to repair meter malfunctions, and so on.
“Below the radar of public attention, there are many such cases of varying scale, in which it is certainly not only Roma who are involved, contrary to the prevailing but erroneous view,” comments a person familiar with the proceedings.
The structure of this particular scam is reminiscent of the hacking of pay-TV decoders and the subsequent sale of services to interested parties throughout Greece, and it demonstrates just how creative these criminal networks have become.
Take, for example, the recent case of fraudsters who forged the signatures of unsuspecting consumers and stole electricity using the personal information of others, making it appear as though the victims had signed contracts with utility providers. As a result, these unsuspecting consumers are now being asked to pay bills for services that do not belong to them, in homes and areas where they have never lived.
Despite the apparent improvement in electricity theft over the past two years, the cost continues to amount to approximately 450 million euros annually, burdening those who pay on time with an average of 50 euros per year per bill.
According to the data recently presented by Deputy Minister of Environment and Energy Nikos Tsafos together with HEDNO CEO Tasos Manos, although non-technical grid losses (as electricity theft is termed) have shown a slight decline and are now at pre-energy crisis (2022) levels, they remain particularly high.
From 6.5%—the total losses (technical and non-technical) during the 2012–2013 period as a percentage of the total energy entering the grid—they surged to 11.2%–11.4% during the 2022–2023 period, as high electricity prices during the energy crisis increased the incentive for power-saving measures.
Today, they stand at 10%—figures that are by no means small—although the total benefit for compliant consumers from the slight decline in this phenomenon during the 2024–2025 period is estimated at 150–200 million This is partly due to the use of fines collected in cases that are identified and, most importantly, finalized in court.
Installments, just like for a simple tax debt
The need to improve performance indicators is seen as the only way forward, which is why the Ministry of Environment and Energy is considering further tightening the regulatory framework. “Both in terms of speeding up the overall procedures, that is, shortening the deadline for those found to be stealing electricity to file an appeal, as well as the Hellenic Electricity Distribution Network Operator’s (DEDDIE) response to the accused party’s request, and regarding the method of paying the fines,” Mr. Tsafos recently stated.
The most significant “loophole” is that the immediately assessed fine is converted into… 12 monthly installments. This means that those who commit a criminal offense—such as the three members of the ring that was dismantled and the 105 consumers who were enjoying reduced rates in Attica, Thessaloniki, the Peloponnese, Thessaly, and elsewhere, are treated under the same system that applies to law-abiding citizens. That is, those who simply wish to settle a debt with the tax authorities.
There are numerous law firms operating in this field that represent defendants charged with electricity theft in criminal courts and advertise that they have handled a large number of cases in which they secured the acquittal of the defendants.