Mail bag dumped in bush on street in Blackburn (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Mail bag dumped in bush on street in Blackburn

7:00pm Tuesday 29th September 2009 in

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BANK details and credit card bills were among hundreds of letters found dumped in a bush in Blackburn.

Residents of Whinfield Place, off Preston New Road in the Beardwood area made the discovery at 2pm on Sunday.

Inside a black bin liner was a red Royal Mail bag containing several bundles of letters for surrounding streets.

The police and Royal Mail were alerted and a security van from the postal firm picked up the bag at 8pm.

One man, who didn’t want to be named, helped his neighbour contact the authorities.

He said: “My neighbour knocked on my door and said ‘I’ve made a discovery’ and showed me the big bag of mail.

"I am absolutely disgusted. This is quite frightening and someone should lose their job over this.

“In that discarded bag I saw my Barclaycard bill.

“I’m extremely annoyed. Is this the new Royal Mail standard of delivery?”

The resident said he has since made several calls to Royal Mail to find out what happened, but said he had not received an apology.

He claimed letters in the dumped bag were addressed to six or seven nearby roads including Copper Beeches, Scarr Lane and Meins Road.

“This is a big breach of security. If a these letters had got into the wrong hands, hundreds of people’s bank details would have been available.”

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “After being contacted by a member of the public we recovered a bag of mail in the BB2 postcode district of Blackburn on Sunday evening.

"All the items have now been delivered and an investigation is under way.

“We would like to thank the resident for bringing the incident to our attention and apologise for any inconvenience or distress caused to customers.”

Anyone with concerns should contact Royal Mail on 08457 740 740.