Licensee's shock at £200,000 water bill

A licensee almost fainted with shock when she received a water bill for nearly £200,000 - 150 times the usual rate.

Margaret Barrett, who owns the Douglas Bader pub in Martlesham, Suffolk, said she nearly collapsed when she saw a six month demand for £198,869 from Anglian Water.

She said: "You could buy a whole house with that much. It made me do a double, even triple take.

"When you see that many numbers it is difficult to take in straight away.

"I know we have been busy over the summer but not that busy. Normally the bill is around £1,200 for six months."

Anglian Water also told her they would be increasing her monthly direct debit payment to a staggering £16,657, but she managed to stop the money being taken from the account.

"If we had been on holiday and the money had actually left the business account, we could have been in real trouble," she added.

"We have laughed about it since but it does have a serious side.

"If that bill had been sent to an elderly person they may have thought they had left their water running, it would have been a big shock.

"I don't see how they can let these bills be sent out."

Anglian Water said a fault on the pub's water meter, which had failed to reset itself correctly, was to blame for the error.

A spokeswoman for the company said: "We do have systems in place to check unusually high bills. We are terribly sorry this did get sent out, we should have spotted it sooner."