An angry man has claimed he has suffered two months of stress and worry because of 'bureaucratic bungling' by Yorkshire Electricity.

Wes Kennedy, of St Richard's Road, Otley, said his home had always been supplied by British Gas - until a letter arrived addressed to someone he had never heard of, thanking him for switching to Yorkshire Electricity's gas.

"I'd never heard of this woman before and I never asked to switch suppliers so I was shocked when the letter arrived," he said. "I am happy with British Gas. It was completely unauthorised, but YE seemed determined to have my gas.

"It has been a stressful time. I can look after myself, but there may be more vulnerable people who can't and my main concern is that other unsuspecting people should be alerted to what is going on."

Mr Kennedy said the letter arrived on January 10 from YE's Leeds domestic energy department addressed to Mrs Simpson. He said he phoned YE who apologised and said that they had got the wrong name and address and that it would be put right.

But on February 1 he said he received a letter from YE's domestic energy department in Sheffield asking for a starting meter reading because they wanted to take over the gas supply in five days' time.

Mr Kennedy said he spoke to customer services, who apologised and told him it was an erroneous transfer, which would be cancelled.

British Gas then cancelled Mr Kennedy's standing orders, because they believed he was YE's customer.

"It has all been sorted out now," said Mr Kennedy. "But I've had the inconvenience of having my direct debits cancelled and I won't be able to restart for another month or so yet. As far as I am concerned, I have never been YE's customer, despite all their best efforts," he said.

A YE spokesman apologised for any inconvenience and promised that Mr Kennedy would not receive any more correspondence from them. She said that the confusion had arisen because they had received a transfer request from a customer who had a very similar address and postcode and who had wrongly filled in their application form.

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