PENSIONER Tom Moulding fears he has become the latest victim of the BT international sex lines mystery after being billed for calls he never made.

Mr Moulding, 72, has been landed with almost £40 extra on his bill for calls to X-rated lines in South America and to a remote South Pacific island off the coast of Australia.

His BT bill said 12 calls to Chile and Tuvalu had been made from his house in just over an hour on a Tuesday afternoon - some were only 20 seconds apart.

Mr Moulding, of Ranken Drive, Hoddlesden, said: "Only my wife and I live at the house and we were out at time the calls were supposed to have been made.

"It is not difficult to realise that there is something wrong about the calls, especially when two were only 24 seconds apart."

The bill also shows that two calls were made from Mr Moulding's phone a week later. Again both he and his wife, Mary, were out at the time. Mr Moulding has complained to BT, but has been told that the calls were definitely made from his phone.

He said: "BT are investigating the matter.

"However, they have said no one else could be making the calls other than someone phoning directly from my line.

"I will pay for the calls I have made, but I won't be paying for these international calls."

His complaint is the latest in an ever-increasing list from disgruntled phone users in East Lancashire, who have been billed for calls to sexlines and chatlines they say they never made.

Callers are being charged more than £1 a minute and one phone user was faced with a £580 bill.

The problem was highlighted on the BBC consumer programme Watchdog, when comedian Barry Cryer claimed to be a victim.

The programme claimed that the domestic phone system could be hacked into by computer buffs surfing the Internet.

BT has denied that it is possible to hack in without them knowing about it.

A spokeswoman said: "Mr Moulding has been in contact with us and if he calls us again we will look into his case.

"There is usually a perfectly reasonable explanation for these calls."

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