英国能源巨头误将15万英镑打入一业余演员账户

With profits of half-a-million pounds a day thanks to record prices, it's perhaps no surprise that an energy giant would fail to notice a mere £150,000 going astray.

But when the six-figure sum from Npower popped up unexpectedly in amateur actor Terry Atkinson's bank account, it was a moment of eye-rubbing disbelief - not least as he isn't even one of their customers.

Despite living in a shared house and working in a call centre as he pursues his dream of a professional Drama career, the 30-year-old resisted temptation and informed his bank there must have been a mistake.

However, as of last night, the small fortune - just about enough to cover the chief executive's annual bonus - was last night still sitting in his account waiting to be recalled by the German-owned multinational.

Yesterday Mr Atkinson said the astonishing oversight showed the Big Six energy giants were making so much money that the small matter of a missing £150,000 was barely worth chasing.

'They probably spend that sort of money on a corporate night out, yet it could heat thousands of pensioners' homes this winter,' he said.

'People are having to go hungry because their energy bills are so high, and yet Npower can transfer a vast sum of money by a casual mistake and not even notice.

'What's particularly scary is that I haven't been one of their customers for five years, so how have they even got my details?' Mr Atkinson checked his online NatWest account on Tuesday expecting it have less than £70 remaining.

Instead, he was stunned to see his balance swollen by a payment of £151,786.69 from Npower.

'I couldn't believe my eyes,' said. 'At first I thought: "Have I won the Lottery?" 'I phoned my bank and they said: "Don't spend it yet". I told them not to worry, I had no intention of spending it.

'Npower make millions of pounds a day, they could quite easily afford to take me to court and accuse me of theft if they wanted to.

'But I have to count every penny to pay my bills, so to have that sort of life-changing amount sitting taunting me in my account is pretty hard to deal with.'

Mr Atkinson earns less than £20,000-a-year in a call centre and lives in a shared house in Abingdon, Oxfordshire with two friends, paying £525-a-month in rent.

His passion is acting - he recently played Algernon in Abingdon Drama Club's production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest - and it's money that could have helped him fulfil his dream.

'I'd love to go to drama school, which these days would cost around £60,000,' he said.

'In a parallel universe where I do just go and spend the money, I could pay for that and get my own flat as well.' He hasn't been a customer with Npower since he was a student in 2008.

His current home has a pre-pay meter which Mr Atkinson said was swallowing up more and more of the friends' income.

'We have to be careful to make sure we can pay the bills,' he said.

His bank has told him that Npower will have to request the money transfer is rescinded before it can be taken out of his account.

For now, he has transferred it into his savings account to avoid confusion - and he may be able to pocket any interest it earns.

Npower last month put fuel prices up by 10.4 per cent, more than rivals British Gas and SSE, taking an average annual bill for gas and electricity to £1,459.

It recently revealed profits so far this year of £116million, however that was down on last year and led to warnings of 2,000 job losses.

But chief executive Paul Massara branded calls for him to give up his annual bonus of around £150,000 a 'gimmick', saying he would only receive it for meeting customer satisfaction targets.

Anyone who receives a windfall which they suspect was deposited accidentally and fails to inform their bank is likely to be committing the offence of retaining wrongful credit under the 1968 Theft Act.

In 2008 Amanda Moorcroft, of Blackburn, was jailed for ten months after spending £135,000 wrongly paid into her sister's Abbey National account on a holiday to Florida, luxury furniture and gifts to relations.

An Npower spokesman said: 'We're currently investigating this internally as a matter of urgency.'据英国《每日邮报》11月24日报道，英国德资能源巨头Npower近日误将15万英镑巨款打入业余演员特里•阿特金森的银行账户。

阿特金森日前查询自己的银行账户信息时发现，他原本应该只有不到70英镑的账户里竟多出了超过15万英镑。“我不敢相信自己的眼睛。起初我想：‘我是不是中彩票了？’我给银行打电话，他们叫我‘先不要花这笔钱’。我告诉他们不用担心，我不打算花。”

现年30岁的阿特金森目前在一家呼叫中心工作，每年的收入不足2万英镑。他和两个朋友在牛津郡的阿宾顿合租了一栋住宅，每个月支付525英镑的租金。他想去当专业的戏剧演员，而这笔钱可以助他圆梦。“我想去读戏剧学校，这大约要花费6万英镑……我也可以用它买下一间公寓。”

尽管如此，阿特金森还是抵制住了诱惑，他通知银行操作失误，并等着Npower将这笔钱收回。Npower发言人说，目前正在公司内部紧急调查此事。

最奇怪的是，阿特金森从5年前开始就不再是Npower的客户，对于他们是如何获取他的信息的，他也是百思不得其解。

按照英国1968年的《盗窃法》，任何人获得疑似错误存款的意外之财而不通知银行，即有可能构成犯罪。2008年，布莱克本一位叫阿曼达•莫尔克罗夫特的女子将别人误打入其家人账户中的13.5万英镑拿去度假、购物奢侈家具、给亲人买礼物，她因此被判入狱10个月。