UK energy supplier Northern Powergrid gave 74 of their customers cheques worth more than £2.3trillion in a huge compensation blunder following Storm Arwen.
Compensation is being paid to tens of thousands of customers who were left without power when severe “once in a generation” winds swept across the UK in November last year.
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But 74 customers were left baffled after receiving the wrong sums in the post.
Gareth Hughes shared a photo of the eye-watering number he received on Twitter.
The picture showed he had been written a cheque for £2,324,252,080,110.
He wrote: “Thank you for our compensation payment, Northern Powergrid, for the several days we were without power following Storm Arwen.
“Before I bank the cheque, however, are you 100 per cent certain you can afford this? #trillionpounds.”
The tweet has attracted thousands of likes, as others joined in to poke fun at the error.
One Twitter user wrote: “Bank it! Then share it equally between us all.”
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Another joked: “I think you own Northern Powergrid now.”
Someone else added: “No wonder are bills are big!”
The supplier confirmed 74 of their customers had been given compensation cheques with an incorrect payment amount and thanked those who were “honest” about the error.
They added the 74 customers relate to properties with Halifax and Newcastle post codes, reassuring them that a correct payment will be on its way soon.
A spokeswoman for Northern Powergrid said: “As soon as we identified the clerical error, which was caused by the electricity meter reference number being incorrectly quoted as the payment sum, we ensured all 74 customers’ cheques were stopped so they could not be cashed.
“We have been investigating how this error happened and carrying out checks of previous payments.
“All indications are that this was an isolated incident.
“We thank those customers who were honest and contacted us and we have been making contact directly over the weekend with all 74 customers affected to make them aware, apologise for the error and reassure them that a correct payment will be issued to them on Monday.”
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