by Hayley Robinson

Almost 23,000 people have been affected by a council blunder which saw cash taken from bank accounts a day early.

A date entered incorrectly on a computer system resulted in direct debits for council tax payments, due to be taken on the first of each month, being collected on October 31 instead of November 1.

In the absolute worse case scenario, where everyone affected became overdrawn, the "human error" could see Swale council having to pay almost £800,000 in bank charges but this is massively unlikely.

At the time of going to press, Swale council said it had only had to refund one person so far.

The council has received two written complaints and taken calls from approximately 150 people seeking clarification that the error wasn't their fault and it was a one-off.

The council was only aware of the situation after customers contacted them.

A spokesman said: "We would like to apologise that the council tax and non-domestic rates direct debits were taken a day early. If you have incurred any bank charges due to the direct debit being taken a day early please forward us a copy of your bank statement or a letter from your bank detailing the charges.

"It may take four to six weeks for people to realise they are affected.

"It's an honest mistake and though there are unintended consequences no one is being sacked. We are all humans and make mistakes from time to time.

"This has not happened before. An additional check has been added to the procedure to remedy this and to guard against this happening again.

"Once again we would like to apologise for any distress this error may have caused."

Have you been affected? Leave your comments below or contact the newsroom on 01795 580300.