British Gas's parent company, Centrica, sparked consumer outrage as it reported surging profits of more than £1.5 billion and a bumper dividend for shareholders - just a week after its subsidiary slapped a 22 per cent price rise on its British energy customers.

Centrica admitted today that operating profits at British Gas plunged 63 per cent to just £90 million for last year as customers defected in droves or used far less gas following previous hikes in their fuel bills.

For the full year, British Gas lost a total of 670,000 customers, including gas and electricity accounts.

Karen Darby, the chief executive of price comparison website SimplySwitch.com, said of the results for both companies: "It is a good time to be a Centrica shareholder, but a bad time to be a British Gas customer. "

Alan Tattersall, director of home services at uSwitch.com, a switching and price comparison competitor, said: "It is clear from today’s preliminary results that Centrica is a business that places shareholder value, not customer value, at the top of its agenda.

"On the one hand it imposes a 22 per cent increase on its gas and electricity customers; on the other hand it increases its dividend payout to shareholders by 22 per cent. They need to strike more of a balance between the two interests."

British Gas blamed the soaring cost of fuel on the wholesale markets for both the price rises thrust on consumers and the fall in profits at the company. British Gas admits it is also losing customers as a result of its price hikes.

Centrica also noted that most of its profits increase came from its production and storage businesses as well as from its operations in North America.

British Gas also insists it is shouldering some of the rising costs of wholesale fuel and is only passing a portion on to its customers.

Following its first price rise last September, British Gas lost 165,000 customers, although the company said today it was pleased to have limited the exodus to this number.

However, a fall in customer accounts and the soaring price of wholesale fuel combined to push the energy firm into a £75 million operating loss for the second half of the year.

Despite the customer departures, turnover at the company still rose by 2.2 per cent to £6 billion.