Sales Department of Yekaterinburg Electrical Network Company collected over 5 million RUR following theft reports, says the company’s spokesperson. The department officers carried out 568 investigations of legal entities and found instances of illegal use of electricity in 146 cases. They also found such instances in 67 cases out of 240 investigations of natural persons.

Since the beginning of the year, the officers from the Economic Safety Department have managed to retrieve approximately 5 million RUR from previously unregistered users onto the corporate accounts. Such ‘freelance’ users are occasionally revealed in the course of distribution point and transformer certification campaigns. 300 units have been certified so far, which means that every circuit breaker within the facility that is turned on has a registered user with a valid electricity supply contract. The rest of the distribution points and transformers will have been certified by the end of 2007, which will make it possible for the company to eliminate ‘freelance’ use of electricity altogether.