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Thousands of gas customers in the UK have been overcharged by energy suppliers making a simple mistake with their meter readings, it has emerged.

Companies have been confusing measurements from older imperial meters, which measure usage in cubic feet, with modern metric ones, which measure based on cubic meters, the Financial Times reported.

While the mistake has benefited customers whose metric meters will have been read as if they were imperial, some customers with imperial meters may have been overcharged by more than 130 per cent.

Eon, one of the UK’s biggest suppliers, found several hundred customers had been overcharged.

The firm said: “Our investigatory work is continuing but these customers will not have to take any action. We will update further as our work progresses.”

Energy watchdog Ofgem has asked all other suppliers to check their billing records to determine how many consumers might have been affected by the error.

Energy UK, the industry body, told the Financial Times it was working with companies “to investigate and address a gas metering issue” which had potentially affected “an extremely small number of accounts”.

“Anyone who has been affected will be contacted directly and any incorrect billing or charging will be sorted out as quickly as possible, including any refunds where necessary,” it said.