A PENSIONER who had been in tears fighting for money her late brother was owed has finally been refunded – after the Glasgow Times stepped in.

Jo Griffiths, from Rutherglen, admitted giving up chasing Scottish Gas for the overpayment just before Christmas.

The 73-year-old’s youngest brother Francis was taken into hospital in March last year and sadly passed away in April, aged 57.

Glasgow Times:

Speaking before she was refunded, Jo said: “My brother paid all his bills upfront. When he died, he was in credit with nearly all of his bills.

“He had no wife and no children, so it was left to me to sort out his funeral and everything else.

“I phoned about and everywhere was very kind and we got all his back payments by sending death certificates.

“Scottish Gas returned the £127 electricity overpayment and said that the gas refund would follow.

“Since then, I’ve spoken to I don’t know how many people, I’ve sent letters, I’ve been in tears. It’s not a lot of money, it’s nothing to do with the amount of money, it’s because he paid that and they’re just not returning it.

“I’ve been a fortune in phone calls and recorded deliveries. I’m just not getting anywhere at all with it. At one point they said they didn’t know about my brother.

“It’s only around £24 but it’s the fact that my brother paid that, and we’ve not been able to get it back. If I do, I intend on giving it to charity.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve sent copies of his death certificate and they returned them with no details on when we would get the refund, no ‘sorry for your inconvenience’ or anything like that, they just sent them back with no information.”

Glasgow Times:

Jo even tried handing in a letter to an office, but still didn’t hear back. She contacted the Ombudsman but was told she would need to get in touch with a lawyer.

“I was getting cut off the phone, whilst in the midst of trying to sort out a funeral and they had no empathy at all”, Jo said.

She added: “This has been going on since the middle of April last year and I just thought ‘I can’t do it anymore’ so I had sort of given up before Christmas.”

However, a recent article in the Glasgow Times regarding a man in a year-long battle with Scottish Power prompted Jo to get in touch with us.

We contacted Scottish Gas regarding the case, who contacted Jo and apologised.

The company says a refund has been issued and Mrs Griffiths will also have credit applied to her account.

A spokesperson said: “We understand it’s been a difficult time for Mrs Griffiths, and we’ve been in touch to apologise and resolve this for her.

“The gas refund has been issued in addition to the electric refund which she had already received.”