SALESMEN for one of Britain’s biggest energy companies are routinely lying to householders to trick them into signing up as new customers.

An investigation by The Sunday Times can reveal the dirty tricks used by sales staff from Npower in the doorstep battle to persuade homeowners to ditch their existing suppliers.

An undercover reporter, working as a trainee saleswoman, recorded how sales reps deceive customers while boasting about huge commissions. The journalist, who spent nearly three weeks being trained and guided by experienced Npower sales staff, witnessed dozens of householders being told that they would save money by switching to Npower when many would be worse off.

The underhand tactics included: Making customers sign a form without revealing that it was a contract. Exploiting people with poor English. Pretending to be officials from the “electricity board”. Lying about standing charges.

One salesman told the reporter: “Whatever I’m doing here you don’t have to discuss with anyone else, because if you’re going to be very honest we can’t sell anything.”

On Friday Npower suspended a team of 17 salespeople after being told of The Sunday Times’s findings.

Peter Luff, chairman of the Commons’ business and enterprise committee, called for an investigation by the industry regulator Ofgem and said he would be conducting his own inquiry into the scandal. The paper will pass its evidence to the committee and Ofgem.

Npower posted record profits of £571m last year. It has signed up 170,000 new customers despite charging some of the industry’s highest prices, with average increases of 12.7% on electricity and 17.2% on gas this year.

The firm’s sales teams are well rewarded. One salesman, Steve Dempster, boasted he was earning £70,000 a year, mostly from commissions, even though he was working only six hours a week.

Covertly filmed footage shows Npower staff telling householders they are not selling anything because they are from the “electricity board”.

One salesman, Aneel Khan, an acting manager, repeatedly denied to residents they would be changing suppliers if they signed his consent form. He insisted, untruthfully, that since he worked for “the electricity board” his company owned all of the others. “We’re coming from the electricity board, the board who controls all the companies – British Gas, EDF and Npower, right?” he said. The companies he mentioned are rivals.

Khan, who claimed managers were aware of the dirty tricks, admitted to gaining customers’ signatures on contracts by telling them they were only requesting more information, when in fact they were entering into a financial agreement.

He told the undercover reporter he sometimes signed “30 or 40 units a day like this”. He said: “Yeah, I do it no problem. Don’t tell anyone . . . even in my team.”

Some salespeople admitted they tailored their lies according to the ethnicity and age of the householders. Khan said: “If the white customer is over 45 to 50 don’t sign them [with tricks], just tell them truly.”

Another, Rekhi Dey, added: “You can target Asian or Polish customers who can’t speak good English, you can say ‘I’m from the electricity board’.”

Other vulnerable customers were exploited. Two salesmen signed up a 91-year-old blind man and a man with learning difficulties. When the mens’ carers complained, both salesmen were suspended. A manager, Steve Conrad, said they would be sent for “retraining” which might last only 10 minutes.

A spokesman for Npower, which has the industry’s highest number of customer complaints for mis-selling, said: “We’re genuinely shocked. We pride ourselves on the professionalism of our sales team.”

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive