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Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday's ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below. 

Ms M.F. writes: About 18 months ago my daughter's electricity bills started rising sharply. 

The average bill for flats where she lives is £40 a month, but hers went to £80 and continued rising until her supplier Bulb was collecting £200 by direct debit. 

Wiring in the building is wrong, but as things stand my daughter says she has overpaid about £1,250 while Bulb has stopped collecting direct debits and shows her account is £800 in the red. 

In the red: The energy supplier told a customer she owed £800 for electricity despite paying exorbitant direct debits

Tony Hetherington replies: Your daughter has been caught between two big electricity suppliers through no fault of her own. Bulb asked for photos of her meter and readings, then decided nothing was wrong with her bills. 

It took you to call in an outside electrician, who discovered that electricity going through your daughter's meter was not in fact entering her flat. The building's management said this was not its problem, and at first Bulb gave the same response. 

Eventually, though, Bulb did carry out tests and found that while the meter itself was fine, wiring had been installed incorrectly and your daughter was paying for someone else's electricity. 

However, the resident who benefited is not a Bulb customer, and Bulb could not get any answers when it tried to contact the other electricity supplier. This has left your daughter stuck in the middle of a dispute between two utility firms, not knowing whether Bulb owes her money or, as her account suggests, she owes them money.

I asked Bulb to look into this. It told me that when it did finally get a reply from the other supplier, it was only to say that the other resident in the building – your daughter's neighbour – had not cooperated by having their meter tested.

Nonetheless, Bulb has now agreed that the meters' wires were crossed. Bulb told me: 'We have corrected all the statements and the account is now £1,067 in credit. We have also offered £200 in compensation. We have not handled this well and we are sorry for the stress it has caused.' 

Given how many months this situation has dragged on, and the financial pressure placed on your daughter, I did not think the £200 offer was exactly generous. It also ignored the fact that you had paid for an independent electrician to prove that something was wrong. 

I made these points to Bulb, and it has increased the payment to your daughter to £255, and it will be reimbursing you for the cost of the private electrician's work.

WE'RE WATCHING YOU 

Banned: We exposed Omar Hussein in 2017

The Financial Conduct Authority has banned the boss of a pensions advice firm from working anywhere in the financial services industry, four years after The Mail on Sunday warned that he was drumming up business through cold calls and false claims. 

Omar Hussein ran Consumer Wealth Ltd, a Leeds business that advised more than 600 customers to switch their pension savings into high-risk schemes including overseas investments in car parks and holiday resorts. The watchdog has also fined Hussein £116,000, saying: 'His misconduct put at risk an estimated £13.5million of customers' retirement savings.' 

In July 2017, I reported that cold calls were being made by a Lancashire firm, Knight Meade Ltd, calling itself 'Pension Safe' and claiming to be working with the Government to review everyone's pension provision. This was false. Anyone who agreed to have their pension plans reviewed was then passed on to Consumer Wealth. 

Neither Knight Meade nor Omar Hussein would answer questions. I provided details of their sales pitch to the FCA at the time, but it refused to comment. The watchdog's head of enforcement, Mark Steward, now says: 'Mr Hussein acted recklessly and abused the trust of his clients by taking unjustified risks with their retirement savings.' 

Consumer Wealth closed down in 2018 and is now in liquidation. So far, the Financial Services Compensation Scheme has met claims from 437 of Hussein's customers, with more in the pipeline.

The scheme is funded by legitimate advisers who are still in business and will have to meet the cost of Hussein's scam.

If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TS or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.