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Wrong bill pushes OAP into suicide attempt

by Kirsty Elleray
9/ 7/2008

AN ELDERLY war veteran from Great Moor embarked on a desperate attempt to take his own life after a power company wired his meter incorrectly – leading him to believe he was thousands of pounds in debt.

Great-grandad Walter Bargate was left without electricity, and pushed to the brink of suicide by E.ON who forced their way into his home amid false claims he owed them more than £6,000.

In desperation, the vulnerable pensioner – who served in Bomber Command in the Second World War – swallowed 100 pills and attempted to take his own life.

It later emerged that E.ON had got its figures wrong – Mr Bargate’s bill had been vastly inflated because the company had wired a meter incorrectly. Mr Bargate, 84, left a heartbreaking note to his children – scrawled in the darkness of his blacked out home – naming the firm as the "catalyst" for his suicide attempt.

Now the energy giants E.ON have launched an inquiry. A spokesperson said: "We’ve launched an inquiry into how this could happen in order that it does not occur again. We would like to express our sincere apologies for the extreme distress this matter has caused Mr Bargate and his family."

Mr Bargate’s daughter, Sarah Hayes, asked for an inquiry by the energy supply ombudsman and revealed a catalogue of errors by E.ON.

She said: "They behaved in the most atrocious manner from beginning to end. It chokes me to think how desperate he must have felt.  I’m disgusted with this company, who even a few days before my father’s suicide attempt could not recognise his vulnerability."

Watchdog Energywatch slammed E.ON for a "catalogue of crass errors" and called for a review of how vulnerable customers are protected at a time when energy bills are soaring.

It was revealed two meters in his home, one for off-peak and one for standard use power, had been incorrectly wired. This meant he was charged twice for most of his energy supply, making his bills up to four times more than he should have been. In March, the ombudsman ruled that E.ON should write off the £6,500 bill – only £1,600 of which Mrs Hayes says was actually owed.

The ombudsman also ordered them to apologise to the family. Mr Bargate, who is physically impaired, now lives with his daughter in Burnage.