British Gas apologises to Sedgefield grandmother after sending £7k energy bill 'by mistake'

A County Durham man has hit out at British Gas after they sent his elderly mother a letter saying her energy bill would be increasing to almost £7,000 a month.

John Dea's mother, 78-year-old Sylvia Dea from Sedgefield, received the bill in December.

The grandmother-of-three suffers from a number of health issues, including onset memory problems which means she requires daily support and care.

When Mr Dea discovered the letter he attempted to call British Gas immediately to query what was "clearly a mistake" but after being put on hold, his call was disconnected.

He said: "I'm lucky that she hasn't understood it. She's quite vulnerable, she suffers with, well we thought it was dementia but it's actually onset memory issues.

"She's still functional but she gets checked in by somebody every single day."

Mr Dea has warned that the error could have led to "tragic circumstances" for his family.

Debt is an issue that is close to the family's heart after losing a relative a number of years ago to suicide after she struggled to cope with the stress of mounting bills.

He is now concerned that the same thing could happen to someone else if the gas company were to make a similar error which, if left unchecked, could have resulted in Mrs Dea being strapped with an £87,000 annual bill.

Mr Dea said: "I had an auntie who a few years ago through the stress of debt actually killed herself, and how would I feel if my mother had committed suicide because she thought she was now laboured with £87,000 a year through this."

He feels that the company did not deal with the error appropriately and has the situation been different it could have led to disaster.

British Gas admitted that the bill was an error on their part but claimed to have "quickly corrected" the problem, despite adding that they could have resolved the issue sooner.

However Mrs Dea's bill actually amounted to a still hefty £241.08 per month and she was already in credit for more than £2,300.

A spokesperson for British Gas said: "We’re sorry that we made a mistake when calculating Mrs Dea’s bill.

"This was quickly corrected and her new monthly payment is £241.08 per month. We have reached out to Mrs Dea to confirm this, and to apologise for the error.

"We had an opportunity to resolve this sooner when Mrs Dea’s son called us and are sorry for any distress this may have caused."

Mr Dea's concerns still remain and he feels that the letter should have never been sent and questions why the huge figure was entered into a computer.

He feels that British Gas' response was not an adequate enough explanation for why this happened.

He said: "If I hadn't discovered that letter and taken that letter away, if you think about that few hours I'm there looking after her, to the amount of hours she's there alone.

"If she picked that letter up in a moment of very good clarity and read through it she could have had a massive reaction and no one would have been there to deal with the consequences."

He also added that he is concerned for other customers who this could happen to and how this could affect their mental health: "I consider that personal debt is one of the greatest problems facing our society at the moment, and it doesn't matter if it's family or anybody.

"Any single person who thinks that they're in an unaffordable situation, they hide that because they don't know how to face the truth.

"Then it builds up and it explodes on them, they either break down and you could have tragic circumstances. It worries me not just for my mother's situation, it worries me that anyone could face this."

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