A FORMER St Helens councillor claims he had to suffer the humiliation of receiving a cut-off letter from the gas board - even though he has regularly paid his bills on time for the last 40 years.

Dennis Collins, who also served on Rainford Parish Council, received the notice from British Gas last week, less than a month after he paid the original bill.

He told the Star: "I have never had a problem with bills before because I always make a habit of paying them as soon as they arrive, so I was particularly angry to get a notice from the gas board saying they were cutting me off for not paying.

"I contacted the complaints department and a man from their customer relations desk called me back in five minutes but insisted that I hadn't paid my bill."

Dennis then contacted Barclays Bank who informed him that he had indeed paid the money when he said he had, and offered to contact British Gas and point out their mistake to them. Fortunately, they have acknowledged their mistake now although I still haven't had an apology. The man at the customer relations said it was one of those things and mistakes can happen sometimes. But I have been paying bills regularly for more than 40 years now and I have never had a red letter before."

A spokesman for British Gas said: "Unfortunately, we had a problem with a mechanical tape which meant that the payment figures of a number of customers who paid through the bank on one particular day, were not displayed on our records. However, as soon as we located the problem, it was sorted out and we are now in the process of sending out apologies to everyone concerned."

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