In a mix-up, British Gas has deducted over £3,300 from a pensioner’s account, even though he was never their customer.

Retiree Lawrence Cannon, 67, only spotted the improper charges in November last year. From Halewood, Merseyside, Mr Cannon shared with The Mirror: “I don’t bank online and, to be honest, don’t often go through my bank statements in much detail.”

When he did scrutinise a statement, a £215 payment to British Gas piqued his interest. Mr Cannon, who used to work as an insulation worker, added: “I saw it say ‘British Gas’ and then above that ‘Ovo’, who I’m with.”

Turns out, these dues to British Gas started showing on his account from November 2021, varying from a mere £29 per month to a steep £215. On discovering this, Mr Cannon rang up the energy giant and prolonged discussions ensued, culminating in a promise of investigation.

However, when he received no word from British Gas, he attempted to call again but ended up smack into their automated phone system. As it asked for a customer number, he lamented: “I couldn’t give them one because I wasn’t a customer.”

Unable to fix this on his own, Mr Cannon reached out to the Daily Mirror for help. Post their intervention, British Gas unravelled the error and reimbursed Mr Cannon all the improperly deducted £3,344. Grateful, Mr Cannon said: “I thought I was snookered. I was starting to panic and losing sleep.”

British Gas found out the trouble started when they got accounts from People’s Energy, a small company that went bust in 2021. They were supposed to look after People’s Energy’s customers but accidentally used Mr Cannon’s bank details for someone else.

British Gas said this mistake was just a one-time thing and no one else had the same problem. A person speaking for British Gas mentioned: “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 also shared that their profits jumped up a lot to £751million last year. This big increase was helped by about £500million from higher prices for energy it recouped from customer bills last year.