The supplier’s indication that the cost of compensation may eventually be passed onto customers was questioned by Sinels as “inappropriate”.

Around 4,000 customers were left without gas for up to two weeks in October when a technical fault caused the supply to shut off.

Domestic customers reacted with anger when told in January that they would be credited £11.56 to compensate for the temporary lack of supply.

In a statement, Sinels said: “We are reviewing matters from a legal perspective and at this stage the only comment we wish to add is that the response by Island Energy seems to be inappropriate as they have suggested that the cost of their mistake should in due course be visited on the consumers.

“We have asked Island Energy for copies of their financials, namely the last five years of accounts, and what dividends have been paid to whom.”

Chief Executive Jo Cox issued a statement earlier this month in which she apologised for the disruption to supply, and said that the utility company was now re-examining how customers might be compensated.

“We have started from scratch to review the outage, our customers’ contracts and what we can feasibly do to make a payment without generating excess costs to our business – as these would ultimately be passed on to our customers,” she said.

Jo Cox CEO Islands Energy Group IEG.jpg

Pictured: Jo Cox is CEO of Island Energy.

The company is carrying out a separate assessment process for business customers, who it believes will in most cases have insurance coverage that would cover them for losses to a greater extent than they would be liable to receive in compensation.

Sinels has taken up the matter in collaboration with the Jersey Consumer Council, which described the initial £11.56 offer to domestic customers as “nothing short of an insult”.

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