A PENSIONER in his 70s was left without gas and electricity for over 30 hours because of an error by his supplier.

David McGarrigle, 75, had no heating, lighting or hot water for his Greenock flat for more than a day due to a mistake by energy company Toto.

Mr McGarrigle, who has suffered two strokes and lost his wife Helen in October, was cut off without warning at around 11am on Wednesday, with power not restored until after 5pm on Thursday.

He was forced to move out of his east end home and live with family until the problem was resolved.

The pensioner says he has never been in debt with energy suppliers and was actually in credit with Toto to the tune of £35 until he received his most recent bill, which amounted to just £4.25 once the excess was deducted and was paid immediately after the invoice was received.

As well as the disruption caused to him and his family, the OAP has also lost a freezer full of food because of the power outage.

Mr McGarrigle said: "It's terrible. "I've never been in debt, I pay all the time. "Everything is paid for."

The pensioner's speech has been affected by the strokes so his daughter Trisha Crighton stepped in to help her dad resolve the situation.

She had to spend hours at a time on the phone trying to speak to someone at Toto, to no avail.

Attempts to switch to a new supplier were also blocked because her dad had been cut off.

The family then turned to the Tele and the issue was finally resolved with help from energy regulator Ofgem and the Citizens Advice Scotland's emergency Extra Help Unit.

Mrs Crighton says the company blamed the outage on a 'system error' caused by the fact he was in credit.

She said: "There was no notification that he would be cut off - nothing. "I couldn't get through to Toto at all.

"Dad's lucky enough he has family to help him, but what about other people out there who are on their own?

"It's disgusting the way he's been treated."

Toto Energy was contacted for a response.