Stroke victim rings up £2,700 bill as condition leaves him unable to stop buying mobile phones

A stroke victim has rung up a hefty bill after being left unable to say 'no' to salesmen offering him mobile phone contracts. David Stopher had ten different contracts for phones including six with the same company running at the same time - costing an estimated £2,700.

The 59-year-old was left with an inability to say no to company sales reps following a stroke. Relatives say he has handed out money to persistent callers and given donations to charities, following his stroke, where he lay undiscovered for two days before he was found and taken to hospital.



His savings have been eaten into since the change in behaviour caused by brain damage. Single David, of North Tyneside, said : 'Following the stroke, I was flooded with sales calls from agents for mobile phones. It got to the point when they would not take no for an answer. I think they were passing my information from agent to agent because they already had my banking information. It got to the stage where I was dreading the phone ringing.' Now, backed by his brothers John and Tony, he is recouping some of the money.

A spokesman for 3 promised an investigation into the six contracts David had taken out with them. He said: 'We are looking into why the contracts were sold to Mr Stopher as we consider this is a serious matter and want to get to the bottom of why he managed to sign up to six contracts.'