Energy overcharge works well for the Government

THE conclusion of the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) that the big six energy companies have routinely been overcharging customers by about £1.2 billion a year will come as no surprise to many (“Millions in line for energy bill cuts after £1.2bn overcharge”, The Herad, July 8).

The measures being proposed by the CMA and the suppliers to redress this shameful state of affairs are welcome but do not go far enough. For its part, the UK Government seems even more uninterested in this shabby injustice. Could this be anything to do with the handsome windfall it receives from energy bills in the form of five per cent VAT? I’m not good with numbers this big, but I calculate five per cent of £1.2bn is £60 million a year.

Hardly any wonder that the Government doesn’t want to upset this particular cart of rotten apples. Iain Stuart, 34 Oakbank Crescent, Perth.

YOU report a Dundee woman being sentenced to nine months behind bars for scamming £33,000 of welfare payments over a period of 10 years (“Benefits worker jailed over fraud”, The Herald, July 8). At the same time you report that the Competition and Market Authority finds the big six energy suppliers guilty of knowingly overcharging customers, scamming them, of £1.2 billion each. I await patiently, as I have done in the case of our corrupt bankers, for somebody to be named and shamed never mind being dragged in chains before the beak and jailed.

Yes, I know there were two bankers in London who were convicted of a £3 million mortgage fraud, but they escaped a custodial sentence on the grounds that they had “suffered enough professional embarrassment and disgrace”.

The banks and utility companies can steal from you, but don’t you dare steal from them. David J Crawford, Flat 3/3, 131 Shuna Street, Glasgow.