Nigel and Linda Brotherton were left shocked when they received an electricity bill for more than £500m. They were also told that their monthly direct debit was to increase from £87 to over £53Million.
The problem arose after the Scottish Power electricity board installed a new meter at the couple’s cottage home. Their electrician connected one of the wires the wrong way round so that instead of recording the number or units used it didn’t register any and continued showing zero.
Nigel and Linda, 59, say that they did not notice because they paid their bill by direct debit each month and were never asked to give a reading. But after they recently switched suppliers to Npower, a man was sent round to read their meter.
When he entered a reading of 'zero', Npower’s computer wrongly assumed the dials must have gone all round the clock – and automatically flagged up the huge bill.
