British tourist hit with £12,500 phone bill for downloading 'My Family'

A British tourist has returned from her holiday in Turkey to find an O2 phone bill for £12,500 waiting for her.

Patricia Al ran up the substantial bill by unintentionally downloading two episodes of My Family over her data connection.

According to the Digital Spy, the 23-year-old was downloading the episodes to her laptop over hotel WiFi. The WiFi cut out and her mobile phone automatically took over the download as it was connected to the computer to charge.

The property consultant was charged an incredible £5,156, 97 for one episode and £5,453.80 for another.

She was also charged over £2,500 for other data bundles she used while on holiday, reports ITV.

"Every day I would plug my phone into my laptop to charge, set up the downloading on the hotel Wi-Fi and go off for a swim.

"I had no idea what had happened until I got a message from O2 on my last day of my holiday, saying my phone may have been stolen, because my bill was so large. I had a look online at my bill, and I couldn't believe my eyes - it was more than £12,000.

O2 said the bill escalated because Al opted out of the 50mb roaming data cap and the £120 overseas bill limit.

The operator claims that it contacted her to let her know her bill had reached £5701.86 on the day she accidentally downloaded the first episode.

"Our O2 Travel service caps this usage and we advise customers to think carefully before they ask us to remove it," said the service provider in a statement.

"We would also advise customers to be careful when using their mobile phone as a modem for their laptop while overseas.

"If your hotel WiFi signal drops out, the data charges will be carried over the overseas mobile phone network and as a result be added to your mobile phone bill.

The phone company has since reduced her bill by £6644.97.