A man hit with an £8,500 energy bill for an address he never lived at claims it was a case of mistaken identity due to his extremely common name.
Iain Smith, 35, was contacted by OVO Energy telling him he needed to foot the staggering £7654.77 bill for electric last October.
But Iain says he was living with friends for the period the bill covers and had never lived at the address in question.
He noticed the credit report listed an ‘Ian Smith’, spelt differently to Iain and a different bank account to his own.
Determined to have the bill, which now stood at £8569.21, eliminated, Iain lodged a complaint with OVO. Failing to obtain a resolution, he proceeded to escalate the issue to the Energy Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman clarified that Iain was not responsible for the charges. Despite OVO’s attempt to appeal the decision, it was maintained, and the energy company was instructed to waive the fee.
To date, Iain claims this hasn’t been done, and the bill continues to rise. An OVO spokesperson said he has been removed from the account.
Iain, a security officer from Leicester, said: ‘It has been very distressing – to get an email saying I owed nearly £8,000 was a bit of a shock.
Iain Smith, 35, was contacted by OVO Energy telling him he needed to foot the staggering £7654.77 bill for electric last October
But Iain says he was living with friends for the period the bill covers and had never lived at the address in question
‘It’s affected my work – I need to have a clear head for my job. 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.
‘I have no connection to this address whatsoever. I didn’t have my own property until January this year.’
Because he had no fixed address at the time, Iain struggled to provide evidence supporting the fact he didn’t live at the address.
He said: ‘They were adamant I had to pay it. At the time they were sending these emails, I was homeless.
‘I contacted them and told them I couldn’t provide evidence of where I lived as I was on the streets.
‘It was clear to the Energy Ombudsman that something had gone wrong and that I wasn’t at that property.
‘I have never had a Barclay’s credit account, and that’s what they had linked on the credit report.
‘It was a different Mr Smith, different age, and completely different address.
‘You could see the name on the credit report. I’m Iain, and he’s Ian, but he has different spellings and middle names.’
An OVO spokesperson said Iain has been removed from the account and have apologised for the incident
After the Ombudsman ultimately ruled in Iain’s favour, they asked OVO to remove the charge.
But Iain claims this hasn’t been done. He said: ‘OVO appealed and lost.
‘The decision was then upheld and became legally binding.
‘They were told to remove my name from the account, pay me £200 compensation, send a letter of apology, and remove any markers on my account.
‘They were given 28 days to do that and they haven’t. I’m shocked that they are treating the public like this.
‘Throughout the investigation, they would not stop contacting me for the money, and the debt rose.
‘It’s now gone silent – the account is still in my name; they haven’t removed it.’
Iain has now asked the Ombudsman to escalate his case to Ofgem and believes this sort of thing can be avoided with more stringent checks.
He added: ‘There’s a massive issue here. When you set up an electric account, you don’t have to prove who you are. No ID required.
‘It’s an oversight – it opens the floodgates for fraud.’
According to an OVO representative, “We have taken Mr. Smith off the account and have extended a goodwill gesture as an apology for the inconvenience.”
