Northern Powergrid accidentally sends out compensation cheques for trillions of pounds

theguardian.com:

An energy company has thanked “honest” customers who did not try to cash compensation cheques for trillions of pounds sent out in error.

Compensation is being paid to tens of thousands of people who were left without power when severe “once in a generation” winds swept across the UK in November last year during Storm Arwen.

Northern Powergrid admitted on Sunday it did not mean to send out cheques for trillion-pound sums to 74 customers in the north of England, with some customers receiving more than £2.3tn.

The energy firm blamed a clerical error in which the customers’ energy meter numbers were used instead of the amount payable.

The mistake came to light when one customer contacted Northern Powergrid on Twitter to share a photo of the cheque he had received.

He wrote: “Thank you for our compensation payment, Northern Powergrid, for the several days we were without power following Storm Arwen. Before I bank the cheque, however, are you 100% certain you can afford this?”.

The picture shows the customer had been written a cheque for £2,324,252,080,110.

The tweet accrued more than 27,000 likes in 24 hours, as others joined in to poke fun at the error. “Bank it! Then share it equally between us all,” one Twitter user wrote. “I think you own Northern Powergrid now,” another joked.

Specsavers even got in on the joke, tweeting “Hang on a minute …”

The supplier confirmed 74 of their customers with Halifax and