Vodafone says father must pay £1,000 mobile phone bill run up by thieves

Network provider failed to flag up unusual activity on the account

A NEWBURY father has spoken of his outrage after thieves ran up a bill for £1,000 in two days on his son’s stolen phone – and Vodafone say he must pay it.

Colin Bunting, who lives in Oxford Road, Newbury, contacted the last week after being contacted by the Shaw-based telecommunications firm.

Mr Bunting's 16-year-old son was attending a medical examination in preparation to join the armed forces when his mobile phone was stolen. Within two days, and before the theft had been reported to both Vodafone and the Metropolitan Police, the thieves had racked up a bill in excess of £1,000.

“Vodafone did not notify me of any unusual use of the phone until after I reported its loss,” said Mr Bunting. “It is very evident from the call records that the phone was stolen and then abused. Vodafone do not dispute this. If this had been a credit card, the supplier would have cancelled its use immediately upon the first obvious sign of fraudulent transaction, then contacted the customer.

“Vodafone insist that as the phone contract is in my name and, as I did not report the loss of the phone immediately, I must pay this bill. I lost my job through cancer, have not been able to find employment and am trying to earn a living by running a small, local business, at the same time as single-handedly raising my son.

“I cannot afford to pay this bill nor do I consider it remotely reasonable that I should be forced to. It is jeopardising the survival of my business and my livelihood, not to mention the amount of distress that this incident is causing me. Vodafone is profiting by exploiting criminal activity and the innocence and vulnerability of minors.”

A spokeswoman for Vodafone, Jane Frapwell, said: “Currently, customers are liable for all charges incurred up to the point they tell us that the phone is lost or stolen. We’re in the process of introducing a liability cap which will limit a customer’s responsibility for fraudulent charges to £100 if they report the phone missing within 24 hours. We’re changing our systems and training staff, and the cap will be effective in the summer.

“Meanwhile, we’ll look sympathetically at any case where a customer has reported the theft within 24 hours... but customers must report the loss or theft promptly to limit the extent of fraudulent charges.

“We routinely alert customers to unusual spending patterns but if fraudulent calls are made in a very short space of time, it may not have registered on our system."

The firm has since reduced the total bill to Mr Bunting to £100.