A UK energy company made a major blunder when it sent 74 customers compensation cheques for more than £2.3 trillion each.
Northern Powergrid is paying compensation to tens of thousands of customers who were left without power after Storm Arwen hit the country in November 2020.
But dozens of customers were mistakenly sent cheques worth trillions of pounds causing some people to take to Twitter to share the news.
Gareth Hughes was one such customer. Commenting on Twitter, he said: "Thank you for our compensation payment Northern Powergrid for the several days we were without power following Storm Arwen.
"Before I bank the cheque however, are you 100% certain you can afford this?"
Northern Powergrid got contacted Mr Hughes and asked him to provide the company with his contact details so that the error could be corrected. Mr Hughes then replied that many other people in the area had also received the cheques.
He said: "You might want to check what other payments you've made, as I'm aware of at least four other cheques for the same value sent to neighbouring properties."
While Mr Hughes' honesty is to be commended many other people admitted they would have tried to bank the cheques.
One user said: "Bank it" Then share it equally between us all."
Northern Powergrid admitted that 74 customers had been given the incorrect cheques and thanked its "honest" customers. Those who received the cheques were living in properties with Halifax and Newcastle postcodes.
A spokeswoman for Northern Powergrid said: “As soon as we identified the clerical error, which was caused by the electricity meter reference number being incorrectly quoted as the payment sum, we ensured all 74 customers’ cheques were stopped so they could not be cashed.
“We have been investigating how this error happened and carrying out checks of previous payments.
“All indications are that this was an isolated incident.
“We thank those customers who were honest and contacted us and we have been making contact directly over the weekend with all 74 customers affected to make them aware, apologise for the error and reassure them that a correct payment will be issued to them on Monday.”
