Man arrested for collecting false energy debts
A 21-year-old man was arrested based on the execution of an arrest warrant from the Madeira Criminal Investigation Department, for the crimes of qualified fraud for unduly collecting energy supply debts, it was announced this Thursday.
“The Judicial Police (PJ) executed the arrest warrant for the defendant, issued by the Public Prosecutor's Office, in response to the crime,” reads the statement.
The information states that the arrest took place as part of an investigation led by the Madeira DIAP, and that he is “ strongly suspected of committing crimes of fraud qualified by his way of life ”.
It also indicates that evidence collected since March 2025 suggests that the man, who lived in the Greater Lisbon area, “contacted by telephone several individuals residing in Madeira, essentially owners or managers of commercial establishments, operating in the restaurant and/or hotel sector, to whom he falsely presented himself as an employee of the Madeira Electricity Company ”.
According to the statement, telephone contacts took place “almost always during the opening hours of the aforementioned establishments and during meal times”.
The defendant convinced the victims that they had debts to the Madeira electricity supplier and that they “would have to settle them promptly, under penalty of immediate interruption”, and that the amounts “amounted to several thousand euros” .
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According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, these people were "induced by the defendant to make payments in favor of entities and references" indicated by the defendant and the amounts were "credited to payment accounts held and controlled by him, domiciled abroad, as a way of avoiding their detection and identification."
"Although separate investigations were initially launched, the criminal phenomenon described was detected in a timely manner, so the Funchal Department of Criminal Investigation (DIAP) organized a single process," the document reads.
It adds that “documentation was obtained from credit institutions and payment service providers that allowed the defendant to be identified as the beneficiary of payments unduly made by the victims, as well as promoting the interception of the cell phone used by the defendant to contact the victims”.
The defendant will be subjected to the first judicial interrogation “to aggravate his coercive status, given the danger of continuing criminal activity”.
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