A man who was told he must foot a £8,500 energy bill has claimed it was a ‘distressing’ case of mistaken identity in which he was confused for someone with the same name.
OVO Energy contacted Iain Smith, from Leicester, to tell him he needed to pay the company £7654.77 for electric used last October.
But the 35-year-old said the credit report listed a ‘Ian Smith’ – spelt differently to his name. He added he was homeless at that time and had never lived at the address in question.
The bill has now risen to £8,569.21 despite Iain’s complaints to OVO Energy.
He then appealed to the Energy Ombudsman and the organisation ruled Iain was not liable for the cost. A subsequent appeal from OVO was denied and the energy company was ordered to scrap the charge.
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However, to date, Iain claims OVO has not done so and the bill continues to rise.
The security officer said: ‘It has been very distressing – to get an email saying I owed nearly £8,000 was a bit of a shock.
‘To have this all on top of it, they’re treating me like scum, really.
‘To me, they are thieves, trying to steal money from me.’
He maintains he had ‘no connection’ to the address listed on the bill but has struggled to provide evidence he was not living there as he was living on the streets at the time.
Iain said the bill not only spelled his name wrong but also included a different middle name and age as well as a Barclays credit account he never had.
He said the Ombudsman gave OVO 28 days to remove his name from the account, pay him £200 compensation, send a letter of apology and remove any markers on his account – but they had not done so.
He has now asked the Ombudsman to escalate his case to energy regulator, Ofgem.
An OVO spokesperson said: ‘We can confirm Mr Smith has been removed from the account and have sent a goodwill gesture to apologise for the experience.’
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