Family members claim a "vulnerable" 98-year-old man is £10,000 in credit to energy company EDF, but the firm have so far refused to hand him back his money.
Eric Shier, from Hayward's Heath, West Sussex, had no clue he was paying too much for his gas and electricity until his daughter Carolyn took over his matters. Carolyn noticed her father was shelling out £750 each month directly from his bank account, based on rough guesses of how much energy he was using.
However, he was only really using about £150 worth of energy each month and, according to Carolyn's calculations, this means her dad has built up a huge £10,000 in credit with EDF over three years. EDF said they are trying to get Mr Shier's "account billed up-to-date" and will "refund any credit as soon as possible".
Carolyn says they have not done so despite her dad always being careful to submit his meter readings around four or five times each year. Carolyn said she's been chasing a refund from EDF for over two months only to be ignored or having her calls cut off, reports The Express. Carolyn said: "My dad is 98 and vulnerable - he could die while this is going on."
Daughter Carolyn Shier noticed her father was paying the high sum each month ((Image: SWNS ))"I don't suppose he'd be very impressed if he knew, but I don't want to burden him with this problem at his age. I know how hard it is to deal with the general public. I totally get that, but I'm expecting to be able to contact this company. Eric is not online, and he only used post to communicate with the company. He does not have central heating.
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"There is no way they have spent that much on energy. Because EDF have done it on an estimated basis, the credit has built up and up." Ms Shier said she had been trying to get back her dad's missing £10,000 for more than two months, after first getting in touch with EDF on December 19.
An EDF spokesperson said on Thursday: "We're sorry to hear about the problems Ms Shier has been facing. As both fuels had not been billed within the last 28 days at the time of the request, the credit balance refund was not processed and we requested up-to-date meter readings."
"When Ms Shier sent us the meter readings, we were missing one of the reads for the Economy 7 meter, so we've contacted Ms Shier to explain this and have booked an appointment, to gain both the day and night electricity meter readings. This should have been picked up earlier and we're sorry it wasn't.
"We'll continue working with Ms Shier to get her father's account billed up-to-date, refunding any credit on the account as soon as possible."
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