Unlikely? We think so too.
Grizzled hack Mike Magee has broken the world record for drinking tea.
In a shocking move, he is estimated to have drunk 128,000 cups of tea in 60 days.
According to Thames Water, his not so smart water meter clocked up the equivalent of 128,000 cups of tea or 437 showers or 400 baths in a 60 day period starting in February and running through March.
That’s an astonishing 213.333333333 cups of tea a day, 7.283333333333333 showers a day or 6.666666666666667 baths a day.
As a prize for his accomplishment, Magee was billed £89 by Thames Water.
Magee said: “I do love a cup of tea every day, but drinking 3033.3 cups put somewhat of a strain on my bladder. It would only be in a dire situation that I’d take seven showers a day. I’m not allowed to take baths, so Thames Water disqualified me.”
Channel Eye asked Magee how he came to win the world championship.
He explained: “I live in a terraced house on my own, do my laundry once a week, and shower every couple of days unless it’s really really hot. In a previous six month period I was billed £180 for a six month period. The amount changed after Thames Water installed a water meter on my premises.
“As a result an engineer recently came round to check the meter. He tested for leaks – there aren’t any – and said he was puzzled at the reading, which he said was very unusual given my circumstances. He suggested it was probably a problem with billing.”
Magee said he contacted Thames Water. James Buckingham, in the CEO’s office, said he was puzzled too. Buckingham told him that TW would have the meter tested but if it proved not to be faulty would have to pay an additional £70 on top of the outstanding bill.
Magee’s case is not at all unusual. In one case, according to The Guardian,a customer was billed £1,000 for a mystery leak, while This is Money reported that Thames Water charges more for people with smart meters than those who haven’t.
