A shocked couple have received a water bill for £6,754 because of a leak they cannot find.

Gallons of water has been seeping into the ground somewhere between a mains pipe and Michael and Helen Kerekes's home in Mallory Road, Hove, and they can do nothing to stop the flow.

The couple have called in supplier Southern Water and a series of plumbers to investigate the problem but no one has been able to find the leak.

They now believe it is somewhere in a pipe beneath their neighbours' garden but are having to wait for them to return from holiday to get permission to look there.

They are being charged for all the water lost because they have a meter.

Former computer company director Mrs Kerekes, 70, said: "It is a ridiculous situation.

"We're in the middle of a water shortage and gallons are pouring away because no one can do anything about it."

The couple have resorted to turning off their water supply at the mains and only using it for one hour each day.

Mrs Kerekes said they were happy to pay for the leak to be repaired but cannot because no one has been able to tell them where it is.

They discovered something was wrong on June 9 when Southern Water sent a representative to read the water meter and found an unusually high reading.

They had only had the meter for a year and their previous bill, for a six-month period, had come to £550.

Southern Water told them there must be a leak somewhere in the system but their engineers were unable to find it.

The Kerekes' called Homeserve, with whom they had bought insurance at Southern Water's recommendation, but they too were unable to locate the problem. The couple then approached almost 40 plumbers but were told on each occasion that they did not have the right equipment for the job.

Mrs Kerekes said: "I don't know what to do now. It seems like there is no one who can do anything for us.

"We didn't realise we would be liable to pay for these kind of problems when we had the meter put in. If we had known we might not have got it. People need to be aware that this can happen and make sure they check their meters regularly."

Southern Water said it had tried to help the Kerekes' find the leak, even though it was not legally obliged to do so because the fault is in a non-mains pipe.

The company said it would not charge the couple the full amount of the bill and would adjust it when the pipe was fixed.