Lesley Williams, from Halfway House, with her electricity bills

A Shropshire pensioner has been bombarded with bills for more than £4,000 from an electricity provider despite not even being one of its customers.

Lesley Williams, 65, of Halfway House, near Shrewsbury, said that she had been receiving bills from British Gas for a couple of years despite repeated phone calls to explain that she is a customer of npower.

British Gas today apologised for the error.

Mrs Williams said after being told the mistake had been fixed she was shocked when a bill for more than £4,000 dropped through her door a couple of days ago.

She said: “I’ve had bills for £475.20, £1,433.46 and now I’ve got a bill for £4,100.51.

“I’ve tried ringing them but every time I spend half an hour on the phone being sent from department to department.

“I’m worried older pensioners who receive bills like this might just pay them.”

Mrs Williams said she had been with npower for many years.

She added: “I spoke to a lady at British Gas a fortnight ago and I said ‘I don’t want to keep getting put from one department to another’.

“It’s cost me more in phone calls than it has in electricity which I’ve never had from them. The lady said ‘you’re not with us so why we’re sending you bills I don’t know, I’ll sort it out’.

“She said I was with British Gas for 10 days in 2002. I must have been using a lot of electricity in 10 days to get a bill for £4,000.”

Mrs Williams said she was worried that if vulnerable people received similar bills they might pay them. She added: “I’m worried the bailiffs might knock on my door. There are only so many times I can keep ringing them to say ‘I’m with npower’.”

Rhys Jones, a spokesman for British Gas, said the error had occurred because another customer who was with British Gas had a similar address to Mrs Williams and her meter box serial number may have been put with their details by mistake.

He said: “We apologise for this error and we apologise for her not receiving particularly good service.”