Company who made Brit, 29, ‘richer than Elon Musk’ with £63quadrillion break silence

Sophie Downing made headlines last week when she was unexpectedly made richer than X and Tesla boss Elon Musk all because of her getting a £10 voucher for Christmas

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The company who unexpectedly caused a UK business owner to become the wealthiest person in the history of the world, even toppling Elon Musk, have broken their silence.

Sophie Downing, from Nottingham, made headlines last week when she became a quadrillionaire….on being able to buy coffee and croissants. She had intiially received what she believed was a voucher worth £10 for 200 Degrees Coffee as a Christmas present, but on first usage turned out it may have been a worth a lot more. .

When she used it to purchase a matcha latte the other week, she discovered the balance was exceeding £63quadrillion.

Whilst not liquid cash, it makes the matcha mogul a whopping 100,000 times wealthier than her nearest rival, centibillionaire Elon Musk. The balance is also 670 times the total of the world economy.

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However, the company who accidently appeared to make the UK’s and the world’s first quadrillionaire have finally broken their silence on the matter. And killed the dream as Sophie did not even have close to that amount even in coffee terms.

Speaking to the BBC, 200 Degrees Coffee confirmed the receipt was a a “technical administrative error” and the amount on the receipt was actually her gift card number and not her balance.

A spokesperson for 200 Degrees Coffee said: “Due to a technical administrative error, the gift card number, rather than the gift card value was entered into the wrong part of the till.

“As a result, the customer was generated a receipt which suggested they had a rather higher amount of money left on their gift card than they actually did.

“The customer was only charged exactly what they should have been, and after they had completed their purchase, their gift card had exactly the right amount left on it, they just had a receipt which showed a very different amount, which the barista gave them as a souvenir.

“They were then given a correct receipt which showed the true value of the gift card.”

Sophie at least had fun with the error and despite not knowing the reason behind the huge figure, she did not “take the mick” in spending at the shop.

Speaking at the time, she said: “I thought it was really funny. I’ve never seen anything like that before,” said Sophie.

The 29-year-old initially used the gift card at the 200 Degrees coffee shop in Flying Horse Walk during her lunch break on Thursday, February 12.

“The guy at the till was really confused. His face was just like ‘what?” she recalled.

“This massive number came up on the till. He said ‘I’ve never seen it before but it’s fine for you to keep it’.

“I didn’t clock it until he gave me the receipt. I thought ‘surely not, that’s actually crazy’.”

Sophie, who operates the Secret Sugar Club, a hair removal service, used the gift card for a second time on Tuesday, February 17, and saw the balance still in its tens of quadrillions.

She said: “Maybe they have scanned the wrong thing. It looks as though they have scanned the barcode which has turned into the balance.

“I could go in and clear everything off the shelf but I don’t want to take the mick. It would be better if it was a different gift card.”

So now we have the mystery solved behind our short-lived coffee quadrillionaire.

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