英國能源巨頭誤將15萬英鎊打入一業餘演員賬戶

With profits of half-a-million pounds a day thanks to record prices, it's perhaps no surprise that an energy giant would fail to notice a mere £150,000 going astray.

But when the six-figure sum from Npower popped up unexpectedly in amateur actor Terry Atkinson's bank account, it was a moment of eye-rubbing disbelief - not least as he isn't even one of their customers.

Despite living in a shared house and working in a call centre as he pursues his dream of a professional drama career, the 30-year-old resisted temptation and informed his bank there must have been a mistake.

However, as of last night, the small fortune - just about enough to cover the chief executive's annual bonus - was last night still sitting in his account waiting to be recalled by the German-owned multinational.

Yesterday Mr Atkinson said the astonishing oversight showed the Big Six energy giants were making so much money that the small matter of a missing £150,000 was barely worth chasing.

'They probably spend that sort of money on a corporate night out, yet it could heat thousands of pensioners' homes this winter,' he said.

'People are having to go hungry because their energy bills are so high, and yet Npower can transfer a vast sum of money by a casual mistake and not even notice.

'What's particularly scary is that I haven't been one of their customers for five years, so how have they even got my details?' Mr Atkinson checked his online NatWest account on Tuesday expecting it have less than £70 remaining.

Instead, he was stunned to see his balance swollen by a payment of £151,786.69 from Npower.

'I couldn't believe my eyes,' said. 'At first I thought: "Have I won the Lottery?" 'I phoned my bank and they said: "Don't spend it yet". I told them not to worry, I had no intention of spending it.

'Npower make millions of pounds a day, they could quite easily afford to take me to court and accuse me of theft if they wanted to.

'But I have to count every penny to pay my bills, so to have that sort of life-changing amount sitting taunting me in my account is pretty hard to deal with.'

Mr Atkinson earns less than £20,000-a-year in a call centre and lives in a shared house in Abingdon, Oxfordshire with two friends, paying £525-a-month in rent.

His passion is acting - he recently played Algernon in Abingdon Drama Club's production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest - and it's money that could have helped him fulfil his dream.

'I'd love to go to drama school, which these days would cost around £60,000,' he said.

'In a parallel universe where I do just go and spend the money, I could pay for that and get my own flat as well.' He hasn't been a customer with Npower since he was a student in 2008.

His current home has a pre-pay meter which Mr Atkinson said was swallowing up more and more of the friends' income.

'We have to be careful to make sure we can pay the bills,' he said.

His bank has told him that Npower will have to request the money transfer is rescinded before it can be taken out of his account.

For now, he has transferred it into his savings account to avoid confusion - and he may be able to pocket any interest it earns.

Npower last month put fuel prices up by 10.4 per cent, more than rivals British Gas and SSE, taking an average annual bill for gas and electricity to £1,459.

It recently revealed profits so far this year of £116million, however that was down on last year and led to warnings of 2,000 job losses.

But chief executive Paul Massara branded calls for him to give up his annual bonus of around £150,000 a 'gimmick', saying he would only receive it for meeting customer satisfaction targets.

Anyone who receives a windfall which they suspect was deposited accidentally and fails to inform their bank is likely to be committing the offence of retaining wrongful credit under the 1968 Theft Act.

In 2008 Amanda Moorcroft, of Blackburn, was jailed for ten months after spending £135,000 wrongly paid into her sister's Abbey National account on a holiday to Florida, luxury furniture and gifts to relations.

An Npower spokesman said: 'We're currently investigating this internally as a matter of urgency.'據英國《每日郵報》11月24日報道，英國德資能源巨頭Npower近日誤將15萬英鎊鉅款打入業餘演員特里•阿特金森的銀行賬戶。

阿特金森日前查詢自己的銀行賬戶信息時發現，他原本應該只有不到70英鎊的賬戶裏竟多出了超過15萬英鎊。“我不敢相信自己的眼睛。起初我想：‘我是不是中彩票了？’我給銀行打電話，他們叫我‘先不要花這筆錢’。我告訴他們不用擔心，我不打算花。”

現年30歲的阿特金森目前在一家呼叫中心工作，每年的收入不足2萬英鎊。他和兩個朋友在牛津郡的阿賓頓合租了一棟住宅，每個月支付525英鎊的租金。他想去當專業的戲劇演員，而這筆錢可以助他圓夢。“我想去讀戲劇學校，這大約要花費6萬英鎊……我也可以用它買下一間公寓。”

儘管如此，阿特金森還是抵制住了誘惑，他通知銀行操作失誤，並等着Npower將這筆錢收回。Npower發言人說，目前正在公司內部緊急調查此事。

最奇怪的是，阿特金森從5年前開始就不再是Npower的客戶，對於他們是如何獲取他的信息的，他也是百思不得其解。

按照英國1968年的《盜竊法》，任何人獲得疑似錯誤存款的意外之財而不通知銀行，即有可能構成犯罪。2008年，布萊克本一位叫阿曼達•莫爾克羅夫特的女子將別人誤打入其家人賬戶中的13.5萬英鎊拿去度假、購物奢侈傢俱、給親人買禮物，她因此被判入獄10個月。