A pregnant woman has received a £12,000 bill from her water company for using the supply for just eight days.

Shelayne Upton from Nottingham says the Trent Water bill should have been around £5, not £12,477.

The company says an incorrect meter reading was put into the central billing computer.

A system for checking abnormally high bills failed to detect the error.

A company spokesman told the Evening Post: "A new bill has gone out and we have apologised for the error."

Mrs Upton, 31, who's six months pregnant, said: "I was shocked. I had been waiting a while for a new bill to come but I just couldn't believe it when it finally arrived."

Ananova

-- Anonymous, April 18, 2002