A 'DESPERATE' family has been stripped of their life-savings and forced to borrow money for food because of a mess-up by a mobile phone giant.

The Mortimer family of Little Park, Droitwich, were only supposed to pay £17.64 to finalise the outstanding balance of an O2 bill after deciding to terminate a two-year mobile telephone contract earlier this month.

But instead they were charged £1,764 - exactly 100 times what they owed.

But even when the money was refunded by the company, O2 made the same mistake again, deducting a further £1,764 only four days later and putting the family right back where they started.

The mistake has forced Jonathan Mortimer, 53, and wife Sara to exceed their overdraft limit and to borrow £500 from their hard-up daughter, Melissa, an 18-year-old student, just so they can afford food and bills.

To make matters worse O2 has told Mrs Mortimer it will take 10 to 15 days to pay them back. They now worry about how long they can survive on the little they have left, given their outgoings.

From being comfortably in credit and able to afford their bills, including an £800 a month mortgage, they say they are now at crisis point.

They are £780 overdrawn and believe they may also have incurred unknown bank charges as a result of exceeding their £500 overdraft limit.

The £500 from their daughter has enabled them to buy food and other essentials but now they are worried O2 will repeat their mistake and take even more of their money.

Mrs Mortimer, 52, who suffers from a disability, said there appeared to be nobody in O2 who had taken 'ownership' of what is a serious problem for her family.

After numerous calls to O2 and visits to the shop in Worcester High Street and their bank, the pair say they cannot take any more.

She said: "We have got nothing left in the world. Before this we actually had a surplus, part of my pension. It's horrendous. We have had to borrow money off our teenage daughter to buy food."

It all began when the family attended the O2 shop in Worcester High Street to pay the remaining balance on daughter Melissa's two-year-contract, an account in the name of her father Jonathan.

The shop put Mrs Mortimer on to the O2 call centre to pay the £17.64 on February 4.

"They said 'do you want to pay the £17.64?' and I said 'yes'. I gave the bank details and they said 'yes, that has gone through'."

But when they left the shop they received an email from 'O2 payments' telling them that £1,764 had come out of the account.

Horrified, they returned to the shop, thinking it was probably a 'typo' on the email.

Mrs Mortimer said: "But they had taken the money. The man in the shop told them (the call centre), 'you can't take this money, they don't owe it'. They had somehow moved the decimal point.

"They never denied it but said it was the bank's responsibility."

The family, who say they do not blame the 'helpful' staff in the O2 shop, visited their bank, Lloyds, who told them it was O2's responsibility to sort it out.

They returned to the shop and the money was eventually refunded on February 5.

However, just three days later (February 8) a further £1,764 was removed from their account by O2.

Mrs Mortimer said: "They had no authority to take that money. The first time was human error but this is more worrying."

The family spent most of February 9 on the telephone to O2, trying to navigate security questions and get the money back.

The mother-of-four, a former home economics technician at Droitwich Spa High School, said O2 told her over the telephone to write to them and said getting the money returned could take up to 15 days.

She told the Worcester News: "It would have been quicker if they sent a cheque. This has added stress to a very stressful time for my family. The company is faceless and incompetent.

"We do feel desperate. Yes, I do think they should pay as compensation. A sorry would be nice. Yesterday I had panic attacks. I was shaking and tearful. I would never ever get a phone contract with O2 again.

"The bottom line is that they can find a way to pay this money back. They have already owned up to it. It needs someone to cut through the red tape. 15 days to get our money back is unreasonable.

"Someone in their accounts department can can contact the bank and organise the transfer of the money. That's the acceptable solution."

A spokesman for O2 said: "We’ve spoken to Mr and Mrs Mortimer and apologised for this incident which was a result of an incorrect amount being entered when collecting payment.

"We understand the monies have been credited back to their bank account.

"We will arrange to cover any bank charges incurred to the Mortimers and have sent a payment of £50 as a gesture of goodwill for any inconvenience caused."