A SOUTH Lakes man is battling to get back thousands of pounds after he was charged for more than a million litres of water he did not use.

Ira Fishman, of Sedgwick, did not realise his water meter was faulty until he compared his bills with his neighbour.

He discovered that he was being charged almost twice the amount he should have been for the amount of water he consumed for all of the 17 years he had been living in the house with his wife.

He contacted United Utilities, however they have said that they are going to refund him for the last six years' worth of faulty meter readings.

Mr Fishman explained: "I informed the case owner at United Utilities that my calculations show that I have over-paid by roughly £3350.

"To me, it had been a joint investigation between the case owner and I, and that I had her support was obvious. I strongly believe that she was on my side and that we also had the support of other frontline workers.

"However, in taking the matter up the chain of command, her superiors and the legal team over-ruled her and are trying to bully me into accepting six years’ worth of overpayments, saying that was their policy.

"It had been very pleasant with the frontline customer services until they were overruled. Now it is getting incredibly frustrating.

"I am not asking for their money, I just want my money back. I am getting angry and losing my patience."

Mr Fishman has the records for all of his bills over the past 17 years, so is able to prove what he paid every time.

United Utilities sent an engineer round to replace the old meter with a new electrical one. However, they claim to have immediately thrown the old meter away before checking what was wrong with it, and cannot retrieve it to assess the problem.

Mr Fishman raised the concern that if he fell victim to a potentially faulty meter, and United Utilities are not aware of the source of the problem and how widespread it is, others may be being overcharged as well.

He said: "As we do not know what the problem is, other people may wish to review their own history of payments to see if their meters are/were faulty as well. If some suspect they are, they should make enquiries directly with United Utilities' consumer services.

"It is a shame it has come to this, a lost opportunity for United Utilities to have had me as a grateful customer rather than making me an adversary.

"I found that I was being charged around £800 annually, which is roughly the amount of water used by a family of four to six.

"I live with my wife, which replicates the situation of my neighbour. When he saw what I was paying, he told me it was almost double what he paid.

A spokesperson for United Utilities said, “We do not believe there was a fault with the customer's old meter, we typically find they slow down, not speed up. We tested the area for underground leaks and found nothing. From the start of our records, the usage has been relatively consistent for a large property. We offered a gesture of goodwill to reimburse six years due to our error in not testing the old meter when a new one was installed.”