British Gas owner to pay $27 million after prepay meter probe

British Gas owner has agreed to pay 20 million pounds ($26.69 million) into a redress fund after investigators found ​the utility installed prepayment meters in the homes of vulnerable customers ​without their consent, regulator Ofgem said.

The practice meant those customers could ⁠ultimately get their supply cut off if they did not keep ​topping up the meters. The Times newspaper reported in 2023 the prepay ​systems had been installed by debt agents working on behalf of British Gas.

“It is clear that British Gas fell short in its treatment of an unacceptable number ​of vulnerable customers who had a PPM installed without consent,” Ofgem said ​in a statement.

CEO Chris O’Shea said he had apologised to affected customers.

“When these ‌issues ⁠came to light in 2023 – we apologised, stopped the activity immediately and took rapid action to improve our processes,” he said in a statement.

British Gas will compensate those affected, write off up to 70 million ​pounds of energy debt ​and review ⁠customer records for the relevant period.

Customer energy debt is a growing problem in Britain. It currently stands at around ​5.5 billion pounds and could grow to 7 billion pounds ​by the ⁠end of the year, industry group Energy UK has said.

British Gas’s payment went into Ofgem’s voluntary redress fund, which is used to help charities support ⁠vulnerable energy ​customers.

The investigation, which covered activity between February ​2018 and February 2023, had now been resolved, Ofgem said.