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A formerly homeless Leicester man has been told by OVO Energy that he owes the company £8,500, and claims he has been treated "like scum" while trying to get the matter resolved.

Iain Smith, 35, was contacted by OVO in October last year, telling him he needed to pay an £7654.77 bill for electricity. But Iain says he was living with friends for the period the bill

covers, and that he has never lived at the address in question. He noticed the OVO credit report he received listed an 'Ian Smith' - spelt differently to Iain - and a different

bank account to his own. Determined to get the bill - which has now risen to £8,569.21 - scrapped, Iain complained to OVO, but after failing to get the matter resolved he decided to go to

the Energy Ombudsman. The Ombudsman informed Iain that he was not liable for the charge. OVO appealed the decision but lost. The Ombudsman's decision was upheld, and OVO was ordered to

scrap the charge. Iain claimed that to date, that had not been done, and the bill continued to rise. When contacted by the Press about Iain's situation and claims, a spokesperson for

the company said he had now been removed from the account. Iain, a security officer from the city, said: "It has been very distressing - to get an email saying I owed nearly £8,000 was

a bit of a shock. It's affected my work - I need to have a clear head for my job. "To have this all on top of it, they're treating me like scum, really. To me, they are

thieves, trying to steal money from me. "I have no connection to this address [on the bill] whatsoever. I didn't have my own property until January this year." Because he had

no fixed address at the time, Iain struggled to provide evidence to OVO supporting the fact that he did not live at the address but elsewhere. He said: "They were adamant I had to pay

it. At the time they were sending these emails, I was homeless. "I contacted them and told them I couldn't provide evidence of where I lived as I was on the streets. It was clear

to the Energy Ombudsman that something had gone wrong and that I wasn't at that property. "I have never had a Barclay's credit account, and that's what they had linked on

the credit report. It was a different Mr Smith, different age, and completely different address. "You could see the name on the credit report. I'm Iain, and he's Ian, but he

has different spellings and middle names." Iain added: "OVO appealed [the Ombudsman's ruling] and lost. The decision was then upheld and became legally binding. "They

were told to remove my name from the account, pay me £200 compensation, send a letter of apology and remove any markers on my account." He claimed: "They were given 28 days to do

that and they haven't. "I'm shocked that they are treating the public like this. Throughout the investigation, they would not stop contacting me for the money, and the debt

rose. "It's now gone silent - the account is still in my name; they haven't removed it." Iain has now asked the Ombudsman to escalate his case to Ofgem. He said he

believed such incidents could be avoided with more stringent checks on people setting up accounts. He said: "There's a massive issue here. When you set up an [electricity] account,

you don't have to prove who you are. No ID required. "It's an oversight. It opens the floodgates for fraud." An OVO spokesperson said: "We can confirm Mr Smith has

been removed from the account and have sent a goodwill gesture to apologise for the experience." We are now bringing you the latest updates on WhatsApp first