Blackpool man hit by massive incorrect monthly electric bill - for £13,000

Brendan O’Rourke, who runs the Sunny Dee’s Holiday Apartments on Promenade at North Shore, had been expecting a more typical bill for around £245 and was aghast when he saw the massive sum totalling £13,262.73 - which immediately plunged his bank account into the red.

Brendan says he contacted his supplier, Colchester-based Pozitive Energy, who told him they had cancelled the incorrect bill – but unfortunately, they hadn’t and the bill went through.

He said: “They still took the direct debit putting me thousands of pounds into the red.

"I couldn’t quite believe my eyes, to be honest, and it was pretty distressing at the time – it could potentially have caused me a lot of problems.

“Pozitive Energy then had the cheek to advise me that my payment ‘had failed!”

Fortunately Brendan’s bank returned the direct debit as there were insufficient funds in his account to accommodate the monster bill.

There had been no hint of what was to come when Brendan submitted his meter readings on May 31, along with uploaded photos of the meter, to the Pozitive Energy website.

Brendan, who has owned Sunny Dee’s for the past five years, added: “Somehow their IT systems calculated this vastly incorrect amount.

"I immediately queried this and escalated a complaint to their CEO.

“It was then that I was advised the bills were cancelled, but didn’t cancel it and the thing was still there in my account.

"Thankfully it was only there for one day before my bank acted and returned it – but some people would have been really worried by it.

"Surely there must be some system in place to avoid this kind o error?”

Pozitive Energy were approached for a comment.