Victim of a crooked gas salesman

A NEWHAVEN woman is furious at a power company whose crooked salesman switched her gas account without her agreement.

The first time Pat Salvage, of Lewes Road, found out she had a new gas provider was when her previous supplier, British Gas, wrote to say it was sorry she would no longer be using them.

Said Pat: 'I have been living in this house for 23 years and had never signed any new agreements. I was shocked when I received a letter from British Gas saying they were disappointed I was leaving their company.'

For a month Mrs Salvage had been plagued by calls from energy company npower asking to speak to Adrian Salvage. She told them she knew no one with that name.

'I was getting three of four phone calls every week asking for Adrian Salvage. I said that no one of that name lived here then I received a letter addressed for Adrian Salvage which I ripped up and threw in the bin,' she said.

It transpired this was the new contract that had been fraudulently changed.

She believed an npower agent had gone through the telephone directory which still listed her ex-husband Alan as A Salvage at the address and used the name Adrian in order to create a new account.

Mrs Salvage, 47, was angry at the underhand tactics used. She said: 'If this has happened to me how many other people has it happened to in Newhaven?

'I think it is disgusting they can get away with it.'

She was concerned old people would fall prey to unscrupulous sales agents.

'I cannot believe in this day and age that this can happen to Joe Public. I felt I was being exploited.

'If npower was offering such a good deal why did they have to resort to these type of tactics?'

Energy watchdogs have been concerned for some time that salesmen for power suppliers are resorting to dishonest schemes to create to new accounts without customers knowing.

East Sussex Trading Standards officers have had 25 complaints from across the county since the start of the year.

It was only when the Sussex Express contacted npower on Mrs Salvage's behalf that it emerged a sales agent had been fraudulently changing people's gas suppliers.

A spokesman for npower apologised for the distress caused to Mrs Salvage and said the employee responsible had been sacked.

'We have looked at the agent concerned. This was not the first offence and he has been dismissed already.'

She added: 'We do come down on employees quite hard who do not maintain the high standards of npower.'