A BLIND pensioner has been left in ‘floods of tears’ after Scottish Power drained all her cash in a bank account blunder.

Mary Maguire, 81, claims she was left without any money when the energy company accidentally sucked hundreds of pounds out her account.

The power giant decided the disabled elderly widow, who lives alone in a small semi detached house, was not paying enough for electricity in Muirkirk and increased her Direct Debit to £363 per month.

Her son, Sean Maguire, is demanding they send someone to check her energy meter and refund her right away.

He claims Scottish Power owned up to their mistake and promised to give back the cash after discovering her account was actually in credit by £700.

But after no refund appeared and more money was taken from her account Sean was forced to give her money to pay bills, leaving him cash-strapped as well.

Now Mary is unable to sleep and ‘can’t cope’ with the stress as her family battle the energy provider to sort out the mammoth bills.

Sean said: “I am really unhappy with Scottish Power. There have been so many issues, they are keeping her in debt, I’m sure they have wired her meter wrong, and they have done nothing to fix it.

“Mum is worried, she is constantly in tears and can’t sleep it’s really got to her.

“Scottish Power have my mother registered as a vulnerable person, she is in her 80’s, widowed, blind and living alone and yet this company keep taking money from her account and not returning it, she is almost destitute and needs this money back.

“My mother is constantly in tears worrying about the money situation and I’m afraid that she could easily slip into depression if the situation isn’t resolved.

“I want someone to come out and properly check to see if her meter is calibrated properly. How can an 81-year-old blind widow in a small semi-detached house be using more electricity than my bigger family house with four people in it? Where is the money going?

“I’ve asked someone to come out but they don’t give us an appointment and when they do no one shows up.”

Sean contacted Scottish Power to confirm that she was over £1,000 in credit and that they could no longer put up with the companies behaviour and switched suppliers.

After two weeks the accounts were switched, a final reading was given and money should have been refunded but they claim nothing has been repaid.

Now the family have been promised the issue will be resolved in 14 days but are sceptical over whether or not this will be the end of it.

Sean is also worried for others in the area who are going through a similar situation but might not have a family that can’t support them as he can support Mary.

Sean added: “If my mum didn’t have me to help her she would be bankrupt because of this. They would just keep taking money, they have pretty much emptied her account already.

“It would be next summer before anyone would have realised something was wrong.

“There’s got to be plenty of customers who are single pensioners I’m sure they are struggling and in poverty but no one is there to help them.

“We are a family not living far apart so we can keep an eye on her but if we weren’t she would be in trouble.

“She has an electric house, she’s got electric heaters that are suppose to save her money, then she runs water about an hour a day, her lighting, and she since she’s blind she listens to the television and radio sometimes but that’s it.

“This is a problem not just for her. They have held onto the money for some time but it’s not just my mum’s situation – who else is suffering like this?”

A spokeswoman from Scottish Power said: "We are sorry that this was upsetting for Mrs Maguire.

"The bills issued in May 2019 and June 19 indicated a substantial increase in Mrs Maguire’s usage.  Our system recognised this and indicated the current direct debit would not cover costs if her usage continued at this rate. 

"A letter was issued to Mrs Maguire on 10 July 19 saying her DD was being increased to £363.00. At this point her account was £615.66 in debit.

"When customer contacted us to make a complaint about the increase we were made aware she had a new heating system in place which was constantly on at a reasonable high temperature.  Unfortunately, the new heating system did not give her the benefit of the previous low control rate.  The new heating system used a substantial amount of power during the day which is the most expensive rate.

"We decided to backdate the bill on a much cheaper tariff as a gesture of goodwill.

"The supply left us on 17 September 19.  The account at this point showed a credit £746.62. This was due to the account being backdated on the cheaper tariff and increased payments of £363 in July and August when the usage was lower due to the summer months. 

"The £746.62 was refunded on 25 September 19. We also applied a goodwill payment £25."