An elderly couple say they were just hours away from paying out £8,650 for plumbing repairs which should have cost a fraction of the amount.

Ray and Kay Lau were charged the inflated fee for the four-hour job after they discovered a leak at their house in Gillingham.

They reluctantly paid the money but cancelled the cheque the following day when told to do so by their shocked daughter-in-law, Sarah Lau.

They claim they were then threatened with bailiffs by the company concerned, which is based in east London, and told staff members would be coming round to get their cash.

Sarah told KentOnline how she later got quotes from several independent plumbers for the identical out-of-hours call-out.

To her astonishment, they came back between £500 and £800 - about 17 times less than the original invoice.

The Laus’ ordeal began on the morning of Friday, September 13, when Ray, 76, and Kay, 72, discovered a leak at their home of 16 years, which is above a Chinese take-away.

After making several calls they finally got through to the company and an engineer arrived at about 5pm to fix it.

Sarah, 42, said: “English is not their first language, Ray has only a few snippets and Kay had no concept of what needed doing.

“They were told it was a ‘big’ job and unless something was done immediately their house would “fall down” and they would be “left with nothing”.

Grandmother-of-five Kay said: “It was scary. First, he told me it would be £3,000 and then £6,000. It just kept going up and up.

“He was on the phone with somebody all the time asking what to do. At one point, he left for about an hour to get a pipe.”

By 9pm another engineer had joined him to complete the repairs and the final invoice for £8,650 was handed over.

This included £3,200 for labour and £3,400 to find out the cause of the problem.

The following Monday, Sarah contacted Kent County Council trading standards team and was advised to get the three independent quotes.

Meanwhile, a person from the firm called the Laus to ask where the money was.

Sarah told them not to respond and took on the case herself - striking up a text message conversation with the company as the email given on the invoice did not work.

In her messages, she asked to come to a “mutual agreement” to settle the bill.

When the mum-of-two disclosed she had got alternative quotes, but did not divulge how much, the reply was: “That isn’t fair. Every plumbing firm has its own prices.”

It continued: “Yes, I understand some prices may be cheaper and some may be more expensive but it’s not fair to compare like that. The price also considers rapid response and the scale of the emergency.”

Eventually, on September 25, Sarah and her builder father met two men from the firm outside her in-laws’ home.

After about an hour of wrangling over the payment in the street, Sarah went to leave saying: “I will see you in court.”

She says the men then “ran after her” and a sum of £765 was agreed upon.

She added: “What they did to two vulnerable pensioners was cruel. They used threats of bailiffs and scare tactics. And who knows, they may have done this many times before.

“My advice would be to always shop around and get different written quotes. And if you are not sure, don’t be afraid to ask family and friends.

“My in-laws are still very anxious. I wouldn’t want to see this happen to anyone else.”

KentOnline made repeated attempts to contact the firm to offer it a chance to explain the vast difference between the price originally charged and that accepted.

These efforts included two recorded letters and several phone calls. The company has yet to respond.