A UTILITY company has admitted duping asylum seekers into buying gas and electricity services.

Door-to-door sales staff persuaded non-English speakers in 14 properties in Middlesbrough to switch their supplies to London Electricity.

Yesterday, the company said the agents involved had been sacked for their "despicable" behaviour and stricter measures had been introduced to try to stop it happening again.

But spokesman Derek Salter admitted some agents were still regularly "misselling" gas and electricity across the North-East.

The sharp practice came to light when Leena Homes, which houses hundreds of asylum seekers on Teesside, discovered 14 of its properties had been switched to a new utility supplier.

Asylum seekers speaking a variety of languages from Russian to Shahali had signed up to new contracts on the doorstep, although the utility bills are paid by Leena Homes.

Leena's director of operations, Nick Paterson, was stunned by the "sustained and highly opportunistic misselling".

He said: "It was not until we made a formal complaint about London Electricity's dubious practices to consumer watchdog Energywatch North-East that London Electricity sat up and took notice.

"We are now awaiting the outcome of their various inquiries. In the meantime, Leena Homes has cancelled all contracts we hold with the company."

Carole Pitkeathley, from Energywatch North-East, said: "This is appalling. It must have been fairly obvious that these consumers had little understanding of the language, let alone the process.

"Fourteen cases in a town the size of Middlesbrough is not a small percentage. This is a calculated attempt to missell gas and electricity."

The group is investigating thousands of complaints against suppliers for similar practices.

But the complaints from Middlesbrough are the biggest cluster in one place which the watchdog has received.

Mr Salter said London Electricity had now severed contracts with seven or eight agencies responsible for carrying out the door-to-door sales.

"We can only apologise for the way the people of Middlesbrough were treated on these occasions," he said. "We don't have control over the agents directly as they work for the agencies on our behalf. We are now working with just two main agencies."

He said agents had been ordered to stop the practice, but added: "There are still people out there we are finding on a regular week to week basis who haven't got the message".

Pete Widlinski, from the North of England Refugee Service, said: "They are deliberately taking advantage of vulnerable people. The law needs to come down heavily on these companies."