Northern Powergrid has been forced to apologise to dozens of customers after accidentally issuing compensation cheques for £2.3 trillion.
Following the aftermath of the “once in a generation” Storm Arwen – which back in late November and early December, left thousands of homes in the north of England and widespread parts of Scotland without any electricity during some of the oldest months of the year – Northern Powergrid is currently in the process of paying compensation to tens of thousands of customers who suffered power outages.
But it didn’t all go to plan for the energy distributor.
In a now-viral tweet, one customer took to social media to share a picture of a compensation cheque showing the eye-watering sum of £2.3 trillion, and asked if the company are “100% certain you can afford this?”.
Cheque recipient Gareth Hughes wrote on Twitter over the weekend: “Thank you for our compensation payment Northern Powergrid for the several days we were without power following Storm Arwen.
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“Before I bank the cheque however, are you 100% certain you can afford this?”
Mr Hughes told Sky News the letter “just made me laugh”.
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“I knew straight away it wouldn’t be honoured, but it was nice to dream for a couple of minutes,” he comically added.
Within hours of sharing the photo of the hilarious mistake, the tweet went onto amass tens of thousands of likes, retweets, and comments from people unable to believe the situation had happened, wishing they’d got a cheque with that sum too, and telling Mr Hughes they “so would have banked it” if it was them.
It turns out that Mr Hughes wasn’t the only one to have received a cheque with an accidentally-inflated sum though, as other people have since come forward to say the same happened to them, and the energy supplier has also confirmed that 74 of its customers had been given compensation cheques with an incorrect payment amount.
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The company thanked those who were “honest” about the error.
After the tweet went viral, Northern Powergrid were forced to reply to Mr Hughes to apologise for the incident, explaining: “Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Please DM us your contact details including address and postcode so we can correct this oversight.
Hi Gareth, Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Please DM us your contact details including address and postcode so we can correct this oversight. thanks, Phil.
In response to another customer in the same position, who called the company out for its “staggering level of incompetence”, Northern Powergrid said: “There have been some cheques issued with the incorrect amount for which we are sorry [and] our team are going to re issue the correct cheques early next week.”
They also asked for the customer to confirm their details so that the situation “can be processed as quickly as possible.”
A spokesperson for Northern Powergrid said following the incident: “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.
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“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.”
Featured Image – Wikipedia Commons
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Manchester City ‘strongly condemn’ racist abuse towards first-team players at Everton
Danny Jones
Manchester City Football Club have released a statement following yet more troubling racist abuse in the Premier League this May bank holiday.
Pep Guardiola’s side faced Everton in a fixture that ended in a 3-3 draw, which could prove pivotal in their pursuit of leaders Arsenal.
Sadly, however, one of the main stories to be taken from the game once again revolves around abuse and discrimination.
Match officials were quickly made aware of racial remarks directed at winger Antoine Semenyo on the day, and, unfortunately, defender Marc Guehi has also been the subject of hateful messaging online in the aftermath of the result.
Sharing a short, but simple and emphatic statement, the club wrote: “Manchester City strongly condemns the racist abuse directed towards Antoine Semenyo at yesterday’s match.
“We welcome the swift action taken by Everton and the police to identify the individual responsible.
“We are also incredibly disappointed to hear that Marc Guéhi was subject to a series of vile racist social media posts last night.”
They go on to add that they will “continue to offer our full support to both Antoine and Marc and never accept discrimination of any kind in our game.”
Everton themselves have since confirmed that local authorities swiftly identified at least one individual alleged to be responsible for the unacceptable behaviour.
As mentioned in their own post, the culprit is said to have been a 71-year-old man who was quickly flagged by fans and stewards inside the Hill Dickinson Stadium.
While this may be the first incident reported at the Toffees’ new home ground, regrettably, it’s just the latest in a long line of similar cases raised not just in English football but the top flight, specifically.
It goes without saying that we’re sorry to hear that stuff like this is still happening, and we send our strength to all those who continue to be affected by this despicable treatment.
As ever, ‘the beautiful game’ is for everyone and racism has no place in society, let alone football – kick it out once and for all. In other news surrounding Man City, there’s also been some controversy surrounding their upcoming FA Youth Cup final.
Manchester City turn down Old Trafford offer for FA Youth Cup final in favour of Joie Stadium
Danny Jones
Manchester City have turned down an offer from rivals Man United to hold the FA Youth Cup final at Old Trafford.
The Cityzens have instead chosen to host it themselves, only not at the Etihad Campus’ main ground, but rather the Joie Stadium.
Primarily used for City Women and the club’s EDS (elite development squad) and academy teams, the arena was formerly and simply known as The Academy Stadium, was renamed for sponsorship reasons back in 2023, and has seen several updates over the years.
Seating just a fraction of the amount possible across the city at the ‘Theatre of Dreams’, the decision has disappointed many, but has been seen as a shrewd bit of gamesmanship by some, as it could effectively see any home advantage handed over to their opponents.
With this set to be the first Manchester derby FA Youth Cup in four whole decades, many supporters were hoping to go along and back their young teams in big numbers.
Proving somewhat divisive among both fan bases, with each of their under-18s squads having enjoyed promising seasons, to say the least, literally tens of thousands look set to miss out on potential tickets as a result of the announcement.
For context, the last time Man United won the coveted academy tournament – which has often served as a key first piece of silverware won by entire generations of young talent – they welcomed a record youth crowd of 67,492 in May of 2022.
In comparison, even with a sold-out stadium, the Joie would only be able to match around 10% of that figure at most.
That being said, it goes without saying that United fans have been some of the most vocal on social media following the controversial confirmation.
best two youth teams in England meeting in the FA Youth Cup final and playing them in small stadium at MCFC is such a shame. 60,000 would watch this game if it was done right.
On the day, the winning team featured the likes of now fully graduated senior stars like Kobbie Mainoo, Alejandro Garnacho, and Joe Hugill, along with several still-rising prospects.
Some of the starlets that lots of fans would have been looking forward to seeing live in a large and historic sporting arena include Jim Thwaites, Noah Ajayi, Kai Rooney, JJ Gabriel on the red half, and the likes of Kylan Midwood, Divine Mukasa, Stephen Mfuni, Reigan Heskey and more in the blue.
Head coach Oliver Reiss (who took over in July 2024) led his City side to the U18 Premier League North title at the start of this month; meanwhile, Darren Fletcher has returned to oversee his young Red Devils after a spell as caretaker manager of the men’s first team.
While tickets were expected to be snapped up rather quickly already for the all-Manc FA Youth Cup final, it’s now set to be a race for followers of both teams to get their hands on their respective allocations.
Emily Sergeant -
14th February 2022 
