A DARWEN businesswoman fears an electricity bill could force her to close her sandwich shop.

Stephanie Stockley, owner of An Honest Crust, Bolton Road, was sent bills totalling £4,000 for 18-months' electricity from a national company.

Mrs Stockley claims the Northampton-based company Opus Energy agreed to bill her between £85 to £120 per month.

But a spokesman for Opus Energy denied her claims and said that Mrs Stockley had been billed for the amount of electricity she had used.

Blackburn with Darwen Council Trading Standards are looking into the matter.

In the last 18 months, Mrs Stockley, of Highfield Road, Darwen, claims she will have been charged a total of £4,000 instead of what she says was the agreed maximum amount of £2,160, which would have matched the amount charged by competitors such as Scottish Power.

She has paid £1,500 of the bills but Blackburn with Darwen Council has advised her not to pay anymore.

Mrs Stockley said: "I'm worried they will put me out of business.

"I am not prepared to run a business and give it to the electric company."

But an Opus Energy spokesman said that they had written to her twice in the last four months in a bid to find a resolution.

He said: "Mrs Stockley has only ever been charged for the energy that she has used.

"Mrs Stockley has not as yet contacted us to confirm how she would like to proceed and we are surprised therefore that she feels we have not addressed her issue appropriately.

"When Mrs Stockley signed a contract with us in May 2006, she was clear about the level of energy she expected to use, despite our recommendations, and thus the payment plan was set in accordance with her wishes.

"Unfortunately Mrs Stockley's energy consumption was higher than she thought and therefore the payment plan had to be changed to account for this.

"Opus has made a number of generous goodwill gestures over the past 18 months for Mrs Stockley including reducing her tariff by 10 per cent earlier this year and also carrying out an accuracy test on her meter, free of charge.

"This test showed that Mrs Stockley's meter was in fact accurately recording her energy consumption.

"We have offered to cancel Mrs Stockley's contract, without any early termination fees and allow her to move to a supplier of her choice, on receipt of payment of the shortfall she owes, which stands at £2,300.

"This was suggested in writing to Mrs Stockley in September."