AN ELDERLY woman in Handforth was left without a lifeline to an emergency ambulance service after a telecomm company cut off her phone - even though she had never signed up to their service.

Vulnerable Josephine Chaplin, 83, wears a pendant with a panic button she can press if she falls.

During the past few weeks Mrs Chaplin has fallen three times and has used the panic button, which alerts the ambulance service via her phone line that she needs help.

But with her line cut off another fall could have been fatal.

Her carer Charles Chaplin explained what happened.

He said he went into Carphone Warehouse in July last year when the company were promoting the new TalkTalk residential phone package and the manager tried to persuade him to sign up.

He said: "They were telling me what it was about so I took away the forms.

"But they assured me nothing would go ahead until the forms were sent back."

Mr Chaplin added: "I couldn't have signed the documents for Mrs Chaplin as it is her account.

"I discussed it with her and she wasn't interested."

The forms were thrown away and as an extra precaution Mrs Chaplin also called her bank instructing them to ensure no payments were made to TalkTalk.

Mrs Chaplin thought that was the end of the matter, until last month when her financial advisor was reviewing her bank statements and discovered that in addition to the ongoing payments to her existing provider monthly direct debits had also been paid to TalkTalk for the last 15 months.

Mr Chaplin said: "We discovered the two direct debits were going out so we just stopped the direct debit [to TalkTalk]."

With Mrs Chaplin suffering from the early stages of dementia, Mr Chaplin endeavoured to speak to TalkTalk on her behalf.

But the company insisted on speaking to the account holder and would not deal with him and within days Mrs Chaplin's phone line was cut off without any prior warning.

"It's put an elderly lady at risk", said Mr Chaplin.

"Had she had a fall, it could have been fatal.

"These people simply don't think about the consequences of their actions or comprehend these situations and if a person is at risk."

Mr Chaplin continued: "I would like to see the signed agreement, because she didn't sign anything.

"The issue is how they got hold of her bank details.

"I don't think anybody can get to the bottom of what's really happened."

He said the whole incident had left Mrs Chaplin feeling very worried and wondering if it was going to happen again.

"She doesn't know why this happened or if she will get her money back", he added.

A spokesman for TalkTalk said: "TalkTalk has very robust processes in place to protect consumers from mis-selling.

"We closely monitor the quality of all our sales methods and any allegations of mis-selling are immediately investigated and dealt with appropriately.

"We have arranged a full refund for Mrs Chaplin and are currently liaiising with the customer's family to resolve the situation."