British Gas has refused to elaborate on its investigation into allegations of a scam by its sales staff working from Sainsbury’s supermarkets.
The company confirmed last week that it had suspended 42 of about 140 in-store sales staff. A spokesperson said the suspensions were for “allegedly submitting inaccurate customer details in order to falsely claim commission from British Gas”.
This week, when asked if “submitting inaccurate customer details” meant submitting erroneous transfer requests, the company said it could not comment during the investigation. British Gas said it hoped to conclude the investigation “in a few weeks” and that “no customer is out of pocket”.
British Gas said it would conclude its own investigation before formally notifying Ofgem. The regulator requires evidence before launching its own investigations and said that “if people have evidence… they should come to us”.
This article first appeared in Utility Week’s print edition of 3 August 2012.
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