A single mum says 'Christmas is cancelled' after her son spent more than £3,000 on her credit card buying Xbox game add-ons.
Eight-year-old Leon Berriedale-Johnson spent his mother Martine’s cash with the extras on Minecraft and Roblox.
The schoolboy spent £3,120 as he played the games online with his pals during a three-week period.
Martine only found out how much cash had been flowing out of her account when she got a credit card statement through the post.
Now she fears the feeding her family will be a struggle and has warned her kids that she may not be able to pay for Christmas dinner as a result.
The mum-of-two said: “I’d put in my card details once for him to buy an add-on for a game for £4.99.
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“That was supposed to be a one-off special treat.
“I had no idea that my details had been saved on the system and Leon was still using my card to buy more online.”
On 16 August alone, the eight-year-old made 19 purchases which came to a staggering total of £978.81.
Two days later he virtually splashed out seven more times, including a single buy worth £199.99.
Martine, who is also a full time mum to two-year-old Eddie, added: “When I saw my credit card bill, I went crazy. I told him I was selling his Xbox.”
The 40-year-old, of Brighton, East Sussex, said that her credit card bill usually comes to £30 a month, most of which is made up of Amazon orders and takeaways.
Martine doesn’t know how she’s going to be a bill that is 100 times more than the typical monthly amount thanks to Leon’s online splurge.
She said: “I’m a single mum and I already struggle to put food on the table.
“But I’m always really careful with my finances. I just don’t know how I’m going to pay this bill.”
She even said that because of naughty Leon’s online spending, her boys won’t get any Christmas presents.
She said: “I’ve told the boys Christmas is cancelled and that they’re not getting any toys.
“I don’t even know if I’ll be able to afford Christmas dinner after this.”
Martine said that Leon was very upset when he realised what he had done.
She said: “He had understood that he was buying something but didn’t understand the financial consequences.
“But now I’ve explained it to him and he realises what he did.”
Martine says that Leon wasn’t asked to enter the card’s security number every time he made a purchase online.
She says this is why he was able to rack up such a huge debt without his mum noticing.
Martine contacted Microsoft, who told her that they have a 14-day window for refunds.
But after being contacted by the Mirror, Microsoft has now said it would be refunding the mum.
A statement read: “Family settings and tools enable parents to block their children from making online purchases.
"We review all reports, and in cases where we our investigation confirms that purchases were made by a minor without parental permission, we may decide that a one-time refund is appropriate.
"On this occasion, the customer has been fully refunded.“