Devastated mum has to close popular takeaway over £22k bill that was never hers

Birmingham mum Lolita Hudson, who owned Caribbean takeaway Popz Kitchen, was forced to close after an energy company mistakenly told her she owed £22,000

A mum's takeaway business was forced to close after debt collectors mistakenly demanded £22,000 from her.

Lolita Hudson owns Popz Kitchen in Birmingham and was left without any form of income after a mix-up from Valda Energy who claimed she owed them the eye-watering amount of money. However, it later emerged she didn't owe any money at all and it was in fact the property's landlord, from whom she was renting, owed the money for the building as a whole.

When the mother-of-two was first contacted by the company she was sure it was a scam of some sort as she was already forking out £200-a-month and had never missed a payment. However, alarm bells started to ring when the Caribbean takeaway shut in June and the debt continued to grow to more than £25,000.

Lolita explained: "There's no more Popz Kitchen and there's still this bill hanging over my head. It's a lot of money to be in my name and it's nothing to do with me. None of it makes sense. Everyone's shocked and upset, every day I have customers phoning or messaging me. It's very difficult. It's been really upsetting and I've had a breakdown because of it. I couldn't see my way out of it."

When contacted by BirminghamLive, Valda Energy finally removed Popz Kitchen from the account, apologised to Ms Hudson and confirmed the outstanding balance was the landlord's responsibility. Sadly, the damage was already done and the former takeaway was forced to shut the business she had opened in 2021.

Speaking about the closure, she said: "In June, two bailiffs came in and said there was a bill of £22,000 and it needed to be paid within the next half-hour or the meter was going to be cut off. I'd been there from 6am cooking, I'd prepared a whole menu of food ready to sell for my day ahead. It was a Wednesday - one of my better days for selling food.

"I showed her the meter, she goes 'oh that doesn't seem right, I need to do some more investigating." After speaking to the landlord, they insisted the bill was in Popz Kitchen's name, Ms Hudson said.

She went on: "It's in my name and I don't understand how, I didn't sign anything to say I wanted to change electric provider. They've cut off the electric and since that day I haven't been able to trade, that was the end of my business and there was nothing I could do about it because I don't have £22,000 to pay these people and it's not my bill."

Contact from Valda Energy began with a few emails, but as Ms Hudson was already paying via Metro pre-paid, she said she thought it had to be a scam to "get money out of me". She explained: "They said the bill was £8,000, and I thought 'that's not right.'

"So I asked the landlord. Even he said: 'It must be a scam, ignore it.' I carried on with the business, slowly growing my baby, it was picking up traction. I had regulars coming from the community every week."

Then she began receiving phone calls saying the bill needed to be paid. She added: "I was trying to explain to them it couldn't be mine because I paid to Metro pre-paid. It became borderline harassment. I sent them pictures of my meter and I said: 'This is the meter, it can't be my bill so leave me alone'."

After her electricity was shut off in June this year, she made complaints to the energy company, contacted the ombudsman and fraud investigation team, but the bill was still on her head. After initial contact, Valda Energy said Popz Kitchen had "entered into a contract for the main energy supply" with them, although it was not responsible for the payment.

A spokeswoman for the company said: “Popz Kitchen continued to pay its pre-payment meter directly to the landlord, but no payment for the main supply was received by Valda. The case was referred to the Energy Ombudsman which did not find Valda at fault in our completion of the energy contract or our subsequent collections process. It confirmed the landlord is responsible for the supply and the outstanding balance. Popz Kitchen will now be removed as the liable party and the account will be transferred into the landlord’s name."