British Gas left 90-year-old £1,000 out of pocket for months before admitting 'we made a mistake'

A 90-year-old man has described the nightmare process of trying to get more than £1,000 back from British Gas.

Albert Taylor was owed £1,089 by the energy giant because of a faulty gas meter. But he spent nine months trying to get the cash and being rebuffed, making numerous fruitless calls to the company's customer service line and contacting three different solicitors - who all said they could not help.

Albert fed £1,074 into the defective pre-pay metre via the Post Office between September 1 and October 25.

“It was costing me so much, I knew something was wrong,” he explained. “They finally admitted the metre was faulty, and I started trying to get my money back, but I couldn’t get them to pay me."

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“It was honestly like banging my head against a brick wall,” said the retired upholsterer and great-grandfather from Middleton.

“I went to three solicitors’ firms locally, but as soon as I mentioned the words ‘British Gas’ they looked frightened to death and said they didn’t deal with such matters. I said, ‘hang on, I haven’t told you what the problem is yet’.

“Losing that money meant I was short of money over Christmas and I was unable to buy presents for my grandchildren and great-grandchildren. And the amount of running around I’ve had to do, going into the bank and the Post Office has really worn me out. It’s been very traumatic."

A spokesperson for British Gas has now admitted the company 'made a mistake' on Albert's case and, within 24 hours of being contacted by the Manchester Evening News, they sent Albert a cheque.

“All I can say is a huge thank you to the Manchester Evening News for helping me out,” Albert said.

His granddaughter, Zoe Brooks