A GRANDAD of two accidentally sent his life savings of over £24,000 to British Gas for his energy bill – then said they wouldn’t give him his money back for weeks.
Toby Wilson, from Plympton, Plymouth, made the catastrophic mistake when he went to transfer £244.43 on his online banking app earlier in June.
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The 62-year-old had been notified that he owed his gas provider the outstanding amount, so quickly popped onto his Santander app to send the money over.
The retiree, who admitted himself that he “does not mix well” with technology, had no idea of the enormous blunder he’d made.
But the next day, Toby could not believe his eyes when thousands had disappeared from his account.
He said: “When I looked at my account again and I thought, ‘S***, where’s all that money gone?’
“Then I went down through the accounts and saw £24,443 I’d paid out in one hit.
“It was just a stupid mistake on my part, tapping it in with my sausage fingers as it were and double clicking, you know I didn’t even realise what I’d done.”
Toby immediately rang his son in fear, who helped him contact his bank and then the gas provider.
But Patrick Wilson battled with the British Gas customer services for two weeks in a desperate battle to get his dad’s money back.
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He said he was passed from pillar to post by various members of the team and was even met by hours-long queues.
Last week, he claimed British Gas promised him the money would be refunded within 3-5 working days, yet there was no sign of Toby’s savings until The Sun Online intervened on Tuesday.
Before the money appeared back in his account today, the grandad was terrified he may never see his savings again.
Speaking yesterday, he said: “I’ve been scared stiff. This internet and me don’t mix well. It’s just been stressing me out.
“It’s definitely in their account because I’ve got a bill here saying I’m in credit by 24 thousand whatever it is.
“Working it out, that would pay my gas bill for the next 10 or 11 years, which is pathetic.
“I might not even be here 10 or 11 years, because you just don’t know do you? So I’m certainly not going to leave it in credit.
“I just want my money back. I seriously want my money back.”
Toby added: “I wake up in the middle of the night, because I can’t sleep. It’s in the back of your mind constantly.
“What a stupid mistake to make. Like I said, me and technology don’t mix and never have done. As far as I go, I’ve got a mobile phone and that’s it.”
How easy it is to make a mistake like that?
Toby Wilson
“The biggest thing for me is, how easy it is to make a mistake like that?
“All that money is instantaneously gone from your account. Instantaneously.
“That scares the hell out of me to be honest – thinking that could happen like that. It could happen to anybody.”
Son Patrick, who lives in Exmouth, desperately contacted British Gas for the last couple of weeks to solve Toby’s problem.
As his dad doesn’t drive or have much experience with technology, Patrick took upon himself to fight his dad’s corner – even though it was incredibly stressful.
Patrick’s said throughout the complaint process he hardly had any contact from the gas provider, until The Sun Online intervened.
Speaking on Tuesday, he said: “I’ve had nothing, I’ve had no emails. They’ve got my email address, they’ve got my number, they’ve got my dad’s number. I’ve had no correspondence, no calls.
“I’ve just been calling their customer services, I’ve been speaking to so many different people.
“It’s frustrating, because obviously it’s my dad’s life savings. It was a mistake payment.
“He is worried sick about it. He just wants it back. It’s affecting his mental health basically.
“I just don’t see why they’re not giving it back. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out there’s a bill of £244.43 and they’ve accidentally sent £24,000 – you can see that’s an accident.”
Patrick said he reassured his dad on Facetime every day, saying: “Don’t worry dad, we will get it back. I don’t care how long it takes, the money is coming back to you.”
A spokesperson for British Gas said: “We’re sorry about the delay in getting Mr Wilson’s refund back to him – due to the payment he made accidentally being so large, it was flagged on our system for some additional checks.
“We’ve now arranged for the money to go back to him as quickly as possible and we’ll stay in touch until Mr Wilson confirms he has received it.”
HOW TO CLAIM BACK CREDIT FROM YOUR ENERGY SUPPLIER
If you pay your energy bills by direct debit, you may end up with extra credit in your account. Here’s how to claim it back:
You can claim credit at any time but leaving extra money on your account during the summer and autumn can help cover higher costs in the winter.
Contact your supplier to tell them how much you’d like to be refunded – their contact details will be on your bill or online account.
You’ll need to give them an up-to-date meter reading.
A supplier could refuse to give you a refund but they must give you a good reason for doing so – for example if you only have a very small amount of credit which will be needed in the near future.
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