Legal News
Manchester Teen Runs up £900-a-month Phone Bill (12 December 2011)
Date: 12/12/2011
A Manchester teenager has run up a bill of almost £1,000 on his contract mobile phone. Julie Muller, the mother of 14-year-old Luke Armstrong, from Oldham, was left stunned after receiving a bill of £912 for phone calls made in one month. Ms. Muller, who claims to have forgiven her son, is urging mobile phone companies to put limits on accounts to prevent other parents from facing the same problems.
Luke exceeded his 300-minute phone call allowance last month, increasing his mobile phone bill from £28-a-month to over £900. His mother claims that Luke’s mobile phone company, O2, should have deemed his phone usage as “out of the ordinary” and wants all mobile phone companies to send warnings when their phone calls reach their standard monthly limit.
Ms. Muller claimed that in the three years that her son had been in possession of a mobile phone, he had only exceeded his call allowance once by approximately £10. She added that her son was a “really responsible kid” and that they both thought that they would receive a warning either by phone or text in the event that he was about to exceed his monthly call allowance. O2 have requested that Ms. Muller pay £168-a-month to meet the cost of the debt and will only grant Luke use of his mobile phone when the bill has been paid off in full.
Duncan Lewis’ childcare law department can provide advice to parents whose children have run up debts on mobile phones.