A restaurant owner from Fleet had a surprise this week when he opened an energy bill that can only be described as ‘gas-tronomical’.

With rising energy costs and the credit crunch putting the strain on many businesses, spare a thought for MG Mostofa, who received the bill for nearly £100,000 for just over a month of supply.

Mr Mostofa, manager of Blue Tiger, in Reading Road South, said he nearly had a heart attack when he saw the South Wales Electricity Company (Swalec) bill totalling £93,271.

According to Swalec, the unusually high bill could be the result of Mr Mostofa’s new gas suppliers providing the wrong meter reading.

Mr Mostofa said: “I’m shocked about it. I just called them straight away and told them, ‘you just about gave me a heart attack and I just about had to call the ambulance’.

“I said, ‘is this the bill for all the UK or all the world’?”

The bill, which according to Mr Mostofa is only from September 21 to October 28, is for £76,755 in energy costs, £13,891 in VAT, and a further £2,626 for a Climate Change Levy.

Mr Mostofa, who lives in Reading Road South, but who hails from Bangladesh, said someone at Swalec should have checked over the bill before sending it to him.

“It’s a careless thing,” he said. “How could £93,000 come to a restaurant bill? It’s not industry.”

When Mr Mostofa took over the management of the restaurant from his brother Farooq, he became responsible for the bills.

He recently switched from Swalec to Utility Warehouse, an energy supplier which says it offers discount rates.

The bill was therefore Mr Mostofa’s final one from Swalec.

“My bill has never come to more than £3,000. This one has helped a lot to make my eyes big.” Mr Mostofa added that a customer service representative at Swalec said they would look into it, but, as yet, had not responded to his inquiry.

Sharon Miller-McKenzie, from Swalec, said: “The customer has chosen another supplier.”

She said the reason for the high bill needs looking into but said it could be due to a number of reasons.

“It could be that the reason the bill is so high is that the other supplier has given us the wrong meter reading,” she said.

She confirmed that bills were checked over by staff before they were sent out.

“We have people in place to check accounts but [the amount of money being ask for] depends on a number of things.

“But it is a big account, there’s no question about that,” she said.

Ms Miller-McKenzie said she could not comment further because it was private matter.

She added: “It’s not something we’ve done wrong because if he’s chosen another supplier then it’s up to them to send us a reading.”

Swalec is part of the Scottish and Southern Energy Group, but was once the South Wales Electricity Board.

Mr Mosofa’s new suppliers, Utility Warehouse, were unavailable for comment.