British Gas has apologised to a disabled pensioner after threatening him with court action over a mistake with his £2,000 bill.
Ex-seafarer José Bell, 69, spent “sleepless nights” worrying over the incorrect charges for his one-bedroom flat in Lewisham, south London.
The company’s own annual estimate for the property, home to a single occupant, stood at just £179.14.
Mr Bell, however, was subsequently slapped with a staggering bill totalling £2,022.41 back in 2024, sparking an eight-month-long saga.
The massive bill caused the pensioner extensive stress and anxiety from October 2024 to June 2025, The Telegraph revealed.
The situation escalated to such an extent that British Gas issued a county court claim against him, which they eventually dropped.
Mr Bell, a former seafarer, was homeless for years before spending time in temporary accommodation while waiting for a permanent home in the capital.
He eventually moved into the ground-floor council flat in Lewisham, still embattled by both physical and mental health conditions.
“One of the greatest things about moving in was that my daughters had a lot less to worry about,” he said.
The bill contained several revised entries replacing earlier estimates. In the same document, Mr Bell was informed there was a sharp rise in recorded usage – but he added the details were never properly explained to him.
He later said he had not realised “how much stress I’d been carrying” until the matter was finally settled.
Mr Bell lodged a formal complaint with British Gas, but the company maintained that estimates had been used because no reading was recorded when his account was created.
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He had, however, photographed the meter upon moving in.
The disgruntled pensioner also said he submitted a further reading in February 2025, which British Gas failed to log.
Despite providing this evidence, the dispute remained unresolved. Without a laptop, the 69-year-old had to walk 25 minutes each way to a library to handle emails and print documents.
Mr Bell approached the Energy Ombudsman, which declined to act because it could not confirm he had given the supplier the required eight weeks to respond.
The case was eventually handed to debt recovery solicitors acting for British Gas, who suggested a repayment plan.
“I put it in black and white; all I wanted was a proper invoice, a breakdown of the costs,” Mr Bell said. But, to no avail, no such breakdown arrived.
A county court claim for £1,887.74 instead landed in July.
The sum would have come from Mr Bell’s modest savings, built up from benefits, which he had been putting aside to repair damp-damaged flooring and improve his garden.
The company recalculated the account using the move-in meter figures Mr Bell had supplied months earlier – but only after The Telegraph contacted the firm.
The corrected balance came to just £52, which British Gas agreed to write off entirely, as well as withdrawing its court claim.
“We’ve apologised to Mr Bell, applied a credit that brings his balance to zero, and we’ll also be providing a goodwill gesture,” a spokesman said.
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