BRITISH Gas today apologised to a brassed-off customer for bombarding her with bills and red reminders for money she never owed.

Margaret Cullen's bills blues began in February when she was wrongly invoiced £142.02 for a boiler repair covered by insurance.

British Gas service said they had made a mistake and would cancel the bill.

A couple of weeks later a red reminder dropped through her letterbox.

Again, Mrs Cullen rang British Gas and was assured the bill had been cancelled.

But, when she came back from holiday, an identical £142.02 bill was lying on her doormat in Frederick Street, Oswaldtwistle.

Frustration rising, she clocked up two more phone calls to British Gas and was again assured the bill had been cancelled. So she saw red this week when another reminder dropped through the letterbox threatening legal action to recover the money unless she paid up within seven days.

Mrs Cullen said: "That was it. A mistake I can handle, but this is just sheer incompetence.

"I have had two red reminders for two bills I should never have had in the first place and that have already been cancelled twice.

"This has been going on for months and it's costing me money and time to keep ringing up.

"If someone elderly had received this red reminder they could have got quite upset and not known what to do.

"It's not nice to receive letters like that. I have never owed money in my life."

A spokesman for British Gas said: "The bill was re-issued as a clerical error after the first bill was cancelled.

"For some reason it was sent out again. It was just a mistake and the bill has definitely been cancelled.

"We are very sorry and someone will be phoning the customer to apologise."

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