British energy supplier Northern Powergrid has apologised to 74 customers after they were accidentally sent compensation cheques of more than £2.3 trillion ($4.4 trillion).
Compensation is being paid to tens of thousands of customers who were left without power when severe “once in a generation” winds swept across Britain from Storm Arwen in November last year.
One Twitter user took to the platform to share a photo of the eye-watering number he received in the post.
“Thank you for our compensation payment, Northern Powergrid, for the several days we were without power following Storm Arwen,” he wrote.
“Before I bank the cheque, however, are you 100 per cent certain you can afford this?”
The picture shows the customer had been written a cheque for £2,324,252,080,110.
The tweet accrued more than 24,000 likes in just three hours, as others joined in to poke fun at the error.
“Bank it! Then share it equally between us all,” one Twitter user wrote.
“I think you own Northern Powergrid now,” another joked.
The supplier confirmed 74 of its customers had been given compensation cheques with an incorrect payment amount and thanked those who were “honest” about the error.
It said the affected customers had properties with Halifax and Newcastle postcodes, and reassured them a correct payment would be on its way soon.
“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,” a spokeswoman for Northern Powergrid said.
“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.”
