103-year-old British D-Day veteran using oven gloves to keep warm after energy firm install faulty gas meter

A 103-year-old British World War Two veteran is keeping warm under tea towels and wearing oven gloves after an energy firm left him without a working meter for months. Ivor Gardner, a D-Day hero, had a new gas meter installed in April 2022 but it did not work - leaving him with no way of tracking his usage for nearly a year.

During that time, he says OVO continued to send letters demanding readings despite failing to attend Mr Gardner’s house in Chippenham in Wiltshire to carry out repairs five times and cancelling a further appointment. The veteran restricted himself to between four and six hours of heating during the winter because he was worried about how expensive his energy bill would be with no way of keeping track.

He resorted to wearing oven gloves, tea towels and blankets to keep himself warm. Ivor said: “Here I was holding back on what I’m using because I didn’t know how much it was going to cost because they keep putting it up.

“My family has been buying me all this stuff to keep warm rather than sitting in the cold. But it got to a stage where I thought, ‘why should I be sitting in the cold when I can afford to pay for what I’m using and have never owed anybody anything in my life?’”

Despite his efforts to reduce his usage, OVO continued to charge Mr Gardner at an estimated rate which he believes was significantly higher than his true consumption, including a £148 gas bill in December. He estimates that OVO overcharged him hundreds of pounds over the last nine months.

Mr. Gardner’sbill for the period originally totalled £632, while he says his credit was wiped out. Mr Gardner had a new meter installed on Wednesday, January 11, less than 24 hours after he and his neighbour Pete Allaway sent a joint letter of complaint to the Swindon Advertiser newspaper, MP Danny Kruger and OVO CEO Stephen Fitzpatrick.