Court find Batocina Municipality guilty of unauthorised use of electricity

This unusual court proceeding started in 2021, and according to the text of the verdict that the Commercial Court in Kragujevac provided to N1, the court found that on February 2, 2021 during the inspection of the metering point at the Kralja Petra I Street, the staff carrying out the inspection determined unauthorised consumption of electricity. The experts stated that the limiters were knocked down and that the display on the meter was not functioning.

The court found that the user of electricity for the metering point of the gas station in Batocina was not registered, that is, that the electricity was being used by an unregistered user, that the limiters were found without seals, that the meter was dismantled and that unauthorised use of electricity was made in the manner described, without authorisation for connection, according to the verdict.

Given that the exact time of the beginning of the unauthorised use of electricity could not be reliably determined, nor how long it lasted, the court took the period from 3 August 2020, that is, six months back from the inspection.

The consumption in question was 49,746 kilowatt hours (kWh) worth a total of 682,972.82 dinars.

The Municipality of Batocina filed an appeal, which the N1 also received from the Commercial Court, citing that the minutes from the measuring point are not authentic documents, and that the extraordinary inspection of the meters should have been conducted by the Directorate for Measurements and Precious Metals. The defence believes that the court did not establish in an unambiguous way whether the unauthorised consumption occurred at all by the defendant or someone else.

In an earlier statement for the nova.rs website, Head of Batocina Municipality Zdravko Mladenovic said that this was not a classic theft but an omission that was more than 15 years old, and that it was about the connection to the fecal sewage pumping station in the Vojvode Stepe Street in Batocina, Loznica, which was stated in the verdict.

“The facility was built in 2006, when the contract was concluded between EPS and the Fund for Communal Activities of the Municipality of Batocina on the conditions of connection,” said Mladenovic, adding that this contract was not implemented in practice.

However, this was not a convincing explanation for the Commercial Court in Kragujevac.

Mladenovic did not respond to an email with questions that was sent to him and a lawyer from a Novi Sad office representing Elektrodistribucija did not respond either. As she said, she does not make statements to the media and she did not want to clarify any details regarding the verdict or the appeal of the Municipality of Batocina. The Elektrodistribucija Kragujevac office did not respond either.

(1 euro = 117 Serbian dinars)