A WIDOWER with dementia had no electricity for four days after struggling to get hold of his energy company, his neighbour has claimed.

Peter Clint, 67, from Clifton in York, served in the army for 20 years and now lives with his dog, Bo Bo, after his wife, Patricia, died several years ago.

His friend and neighbour, Richard Walker, 66, says he called Mr Clint’s energy company Utilita on his behalf when he learned that this electricity went off on September 22.

Mr Walker said: “I wish he had told me sooner, he didn’t know what to do, and had to go down to the local cafe to get something to eat and a cup of tea.”

Utilita say that within 24 hours of them being notified, they sent out an engineer, but the engineer did not turn up. They have apologised and compensated Mr Clint.

But Richard said: “It is outrageous, Utilita sent Peter a cheque for £75, that’s just over £1 for each hour he was left without power.”

Once he knew Mr Clint’s power had gone off, he called the energy company on his behalf, but claimed he could not get through to them, and he was left ‘waiting for hours’ on the phone.

He said Mr Clint got his electric supply back on Saturday, September 25, but then claimed to have struggled with topping up the metre as it wasn’t fitted properly.

A Utilita staff member then came out to fix it on Tuesday, October 12.

A Utilita spokesperson said: “The service Mr Clint received fell below our usual high standards. After being off supply for 24 hours - and making us aware of the problem - we should have been quicker in getting an engineer to fix the issue. We would like to offer our sincere apologies and would encourage any customer with supply issues to contact us immediately.”