And that check was completely official and legally valid, although it is not clear how a bank employee would have acted if these customers reported to the counter.
The case came out when one of the recipients posted a photo of the check on Twitter with the words, “Thank you, but are you sure you can afford this?”
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This Gareth Hughes was entitled to compensation of 2,324,252,080,110 pounds, converted more than 2.7 trillion euros. By way of comparison: that is about eight times as much as the entire Dutch national budget. And Northern Powergrid, the energy company in question, had these kind of checks sent to 74 customersBritish media report.
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The reason for the generous compensation was a human error: two columns in the excel file had been mixed up for these customers: not the ‘amount to be paid out’ had ended up on the check, but the identification number of the energy meter.
The energy company tells the newspaper that they have now spoken to all 74 customers. They thank them for not trying to collect the amount. They will soon receive a good check.
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