British Gas took £3,344 from pensioner - despite him never being a customer

22 February 2024 , 15:03

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British Gas charged the pensioner (not pictured) despite him never being a customer (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

British Gas took more than £3,300 from a pensioner’s bank account over a two year period - despite never being a customer.

Retired Lawrence Cannon, 67, only noticed the erroneous payments in November last year. Mr Cannon, from Halewood, Merseyside, told The Mirror: “I don’t bank online and, to be honest, don’t often go through my bank statements in much detail.”

It was only when he did check a statement and saw a £215 payment to British Gas that he became suspicious. Mr Cannon, who was an insulation worker, went on: “I saw it say ‘British Gas’ and then above that ‘Ovo’, who I’m with.”

It transpired the payments to British Gas began in November 2021, and ranged from as low as £29 a month to £215. Mr Cannon rang the energy giant and had a long conversation with an agent who said they would investigate.

After hearing nothing, he tried to ring again but was thwarted by British Gas’s phone system as it asked for a customer number. He added: “I couldn’t give them one because I wasn’t a customer.”

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Unable to get it sorted, Mr Cannon contacted the Daily Mirror. After intervening, British Gas got to the bottom of the mistake and has refunded Mr Cannon all £3,344 wrongly taken. Mr Cannon said: “I thought I was snookered. I was starting to panic and losing sleep.”

British Gas traced the problem back to the transfer of accounts from People’s Energy, a small supplier which collapsed in 2021, and whose customers it took on. It says they were somehow given Mr Cannon’s bank account instead of another customer who had been with People’s Energy.

British Gas insisted the error was a one-off and that others had not been impacted in the same way. A British Gas spokesperson said: “Mr Cannon’s details were incorrectly provided to us by People’s Energy. We appreciate this has been frustrating and we’re sorry it wasn’t sorted sooner. We’ve been in touch to help resolve this and he has received the full credit back in his account.”

British Gas recently revealed annual profits soared ten-fold to £751million. The leap was fuelled by around £500million of rocketing wholesale energy costs it was able to recoup from customer bills for last year alone.

Graham Hiscott