Gas chief says sorry over bills 'swindle'

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Phil Bentley, the company's new managing director, admitted the new system had "teething problems" but promised improvements.

The Daily Mail revealed that thousands of customers had received estimated bills for far greater amounts of energy than they have used.

Direct debits have been set too high, and some have even been threatened with debt collectors for refusing to pay bills which they insist are incorrect.

In all, 21,427 customers complained about British Gas, which supplies both gas and electricity, between October 2006 and March 2007, compared with 8,012 for the same period last year.

The number is nearly three times the total of complaints about all the other energy companies put together.

"Obviously we apologise for the inconvenience and the stress," Mr Bentley said.

"We have put in a new system. It's working, but there are some teething problems."

Adam Scorer, of Energywatch, said customers trying to get refunds had been hampered by British Gas's "chaotic" customer services. Some have been kept hanging on the phone for more than an hour.