A CHADDERTON woman was shocked and deeply upset to receive a bill from British Gas for 1p – addressed to her late father.

Wendy Haw had the unwanted envelope drop through the letter box at her home at Whitegate Avenue last week.

The 40-year-old said: "It was upsetting enough just to see his name on a bill, but when I opened it I couldn’t believe what I was seeing.

"My father died 14 months ago and I thought I had sorted everything out with paying his bills. Following his death I took a reading and received a bill which I paid promptly."

She added: "I was astonished to receive this new bill so much later and for just 1p. It was addressed to ‘the estate of Mr Leonard Haw’ and must have cost them a lot more than 1p to send.

"Something has gone very badly wrong somewhere."

Her father Leonard died at the age of 77 at Christmas 2006 and was a former mill worker. He had lived at Dairy Street, Chadderton.

Wendy, who works at Littlewoods’ Raven Mill operation in Chadderton, thought she had done the responsible thing following her dad’s death and carefully sorted out his financial affairs.

She said: "I am so upset I haven’t officially complained yet. After 14 months you are getting over the grieving process and then you are hit with something like this.

"With Christmas being the first anniversary of my dad’s death, it had brought back the memories – so, to have this bill arrive a few weeks later, has been particularly upsetting."

A spokesman for British Gas said: "The bill was automatically generated when we came to register the new owners of her late father’s former property.

"We recognise it shouldn’t have happened and have written to Mrs Haw to acknowledge our error and to pass on our sincere apologies."