A watchdog has criticised energy providers after North-East customers made twice as many complaints as those anywhere else.

Since April 2002, Energywatch North-East has received 400 complaints from customers using prepayment meters to pay for their gas and electricity.

Over the same period, there were only 208 complaints from the South and South East, 206 from the North West, and 153 from the Midlands.

Scottish and Welsh customers made only 92 and 128 complaints respectively.

Among the North-East complainants was a woman from Houghton-le-Spring, near Sunderland, who after moving house, tried to pay off an outstanding debt to British Gas through the prepayment system.

She began paying instalments of £4 per week, but found that she could not settle her account.

After complaining to the company, and being told that she had been overcharged and would be reimbursed, she found she was still paying off the debt twice before changing to another provider.

The woman, who did not want to be named, said: "I have been in ill health and I was so stressed out.

"The last contact I had with British Gas was a letter saying they owed me £25, but I'll believe it when I see the cheque."

Other dissatisfied customers, receiving energy from a range of suppliers, included a woman from Darlington who was threatened with court action for a debt she had not accrued.

A Stockton customer discovered an outstanding balance of £400 had not been registered on her meter, and a Chester-le-Street man found that a £93 debt had been mysteriously added to his meter.

Carole Pitkeathley, director of Energywatch North-East, said: "We are receiving far too many of these complaints. "Debt - living with it, or just in fear of it, is experienced by far too many energy consumers and we expect energy companies to play their part in the prevention of debt and not just the management of the problem. "Where a company is solely or partly responsible for a problem, it should not expect consumers to repay the full amount."

No-one from British Gas was available for comment last night.

Customers who are dissatisfied with their supplier's handling of a problem should contact Energywatch on 0845 906 0780.