Oxford researcher fundraising to finish studies after bill fight

A doctoral student whose studies were derailed by a fight with an energy company over a £1,000 bill is fundraising to try to finish his PhD.

Lyle Hopkins, who is pursuing medical research at the University of Oxford, took energy company SSE Energy to court after being wrongly charged for a meter that had been disconnected.

Earlier this month, he won the battle and will receive more than £1,000 from the supplier.

But Hopkins said contesting the debt had consumed “at the very least a hundred hours of my time” and he is now fundraising to finish his doctorate, which has been extended.

“When you’re trying to do this alongside your studies…your performance drops all over,” Hopkins said. “And of course I’m trying to deal with quite high-level thinking in my day-to-day research, but you’ve got all these other worries on your mind about debt collectors turning up.”

Hopkins is enrolled in the Oxford Interdisciplinary Bioscience DTP graduate programme, and is working to develop “interpretable machine learning models to gain insight into the relationship between metabolic health and lifestyle”. 

He began his studies in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, and in 2023 he moved into a new property, at which there was a disconnected old electricity meter – alongside a functioning supply.

“Suddenly they started sending me all these bills,” he said. “I said, ‘there are these meters, then there’s this one, from [an] old, failed conversion.’”

Hopkins claims he attempted to change suppliers and to seek advice from SSE Energy on the matter but that the company did not seem to “deal with the issue”.

He continued: “It just kept racking up. And the bills they were sending me were about three times what they should have been – they were excessive.”

Even after Hopkins said he “outright refused” to pay for the disconnected meter, and reported the issue to the energy ombudsman, he claims the company kept seeking the apparent debt.

He began a civil claim and ended up representing himself at Oxford County Court in a hearing on 20 July. Hopkins said he used artificial intelligence to help build his legal bundles and case but that it consumed much of his time and energy – claiming the entire ordeal “consumed hundreds of hours” that “belonged” to his research.

Ultimately, a deputy district judge found in his favour. In a judgement seen by THE, the court finds that the debt collection sent by SSE Energy or its agents, “should it continue, amounts to harassment”.

Hopkins is to receive £750 “for distress and inconvenience” from the defendant, although the sum to be paid to him by SSE Energy in fact totals £1,087.88 with the addition of interest and his costs as a claimant.

A “first-generation” Oxford doctoral student, Hopkins is now running a GoFundMe campaign to assist with the costs of completing his research, which he was meant to conclude in October, after a friend advised him to consider it.

His fundraising page tells supporters that “donations will help cover my living costs while I finish and give me the chance to engage in opportunities I've missed out on”.

It adds: “Any contribution, whatever the amount, will help me support myself while I finish my doctorate and recover the time and stability this case took from me.”

An SSE spokesperson said: “We apologies for any inconvenience caused to Mr Hopkins during this process. 

“SSE followed the appropriate processes throughout, including compliance with industry procedures and fully implementing the outcome of the associated civil matter.

 “Compensation will be paid to the claimant following the Court’s judgement.”

georgia.luckhurst@timeshighereducation.com