Energy ombudsman question

MWT

J1107 said:

How they calculated the charges is using the allowed averages.
They did tell me that if I go to the ombudsman that they will use my current usage as new estimate, in which it will be higher, I argued they wouldn’t use just my current usage as it’s only winter months, they insisted ombudsman would but I believe that’s also not the case. 

There have been plenty of case where there has been reasonable adjustments to the method of calculation based on usage over a different period to accommodate the differences in seasonal use, so the Ombudsman should not just allow them to use winter as the base, but there is a certain element of luck involved in which direction the Ombudsman will jump at times.

Regarding the back-billing rules, they do not normally cover pre-payment meters as there is no obligation to produce a bill, so there is no actual back-billing involved.

I suspect much would depend on just how obvious the meter tampering was from your perspective and given the amount they say you owe it seems very likely that they may consider that you should have noticed there was a problem...