AN inquiry has been launched into allegations a British Gas worker left an obscene remark on a young mother's answer machine.

Disgusted Sharon Brogan, 26, today demanded action and said she feared her young children may have heard the four-letter insult when she played it back.

Sharon, of Oban Drive, Blackburn, has been trying to secure a £500 refund from the company after a mix-up with gas suppliers and has made numerous calls to try and resolve the problem.

On Wednesday night she received a message from a man saying he was from British Gas customer services and asking her to get in touch to discuss the problem. But when he thought he had hung up, her telephone answer machine continued to record his conversation with a female colleague.

The man laughed and said he had "got rid of her" while his female colleague said: "I will thank you if I don't have to speak to her again."

Talking to his colleague, the man said: "I rang her and left a message but I didn't leave the number.

"That's the beauty of it, she'll have to ring back and go straight through again. Let some other **** deal with it."

His colleague burst out laughing.

Sharon said: "I am absolutely disgusted. All I am trying to do is get back the money I have paid by mistake.

"At the end of the day these people are paid to help customers and I couldn't believe what I heard. I played it back on the speakerphone and it was only by luck my children were not in the room."

Sharon, who has one-year-old twin boys and a four-year-old son, said: "I was fuming when I heard it, and I deliberately didn't ring them back straight away, because I didn't want to give them any excuse. I waited until the morning and calmly told them what had happened, and played the tape back.

"I have been nothing but polite with them all through this, and I couldn't believe they have acted like this."

Since she moved in to her home two years ago Sharon has been paying bills to British Gas by Direct Debit.

But she said when she tried to change to a pre-paid metre, she discovered the company had not been supplying her gas at all.

Sharon is now trying to get back the £500 she paid to British Gas to hand over to the company who is supplying the gas.

A spokesman for British Gas said: "Representatives of British Gas are expected to conduct themselves at all times in a professional and courteous manner.

"We are disappointed to hear about this alleged incident and have launched an internal investigation at the call centre in Southampton.

"However we must bear in mind that the remark was made to a colleague thinking the call had ended."