Gas firm charge man £17,178 for £60 bill

Nov 19 2008 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A SHOCKED restaurateur got a heart-stopping bill when his gas company overcharged him by more than £17,000.

The three-month bill should have been just £60.

But a mistake by Npower meant that Martin Corless, who owns Volare Mediterranean restaurant in Skelmanthorpe, was told he needed to pay £17,178.

Mr Corless said: “We knew and had considered that the whole country was learning to cope with increased fuel costs, but we realised this had to be a mistake.

“Were we paying for everyone else’s and not just our own?

“We’re a small restaurant, operating in a former Co-op baker’s shop on Skelmanthorpe high street, not Buckingham Palace.”