A GOOD Samaritan was hit with a £6.06 council tax bill by town hall offiicals after inviting friends to stay for a few days.

Annalise Smith, 26, of Franklin Road, Blackburn, thought she was doing a good deed when she opened her doors to friends Terry and Trisha Donnelly and their daughter Teri.

The family had come to the end of the lease on the Royal Duke pub in Johnson Street and found themselves facing a wait until a new property became available.

Annalise decided that the best option was for her let the family stay rent free in her house while they got themselves sorted and she went to live with her dad in nearby Livingstone Road.

But she was mystified when she received a council tax bill for £190.60 which Blackburn with Darwen Council claimed she owed, for the remainder of the financial year.

She had already paid her £805.06 council tax bill but as she gets a 25 per cent single occupancy discount the council said that the extra money was because other people had been living in the house.

When she explained that they had only been there for nine days, she said council officials, who have now apologised, said that the new figure would be £6.06 - which matched the nine days the house had been home to more than one person.

Annalise said: "I think what the council has done is a disgrace to quite honest.

"I can't believe they are charging me for just letting my friends stay, it's absolutely pathetic."

The council became aware there was more than one person in the house when her friend gave the town hall a forwarding address, so they could receive their own council tax rebate of £9.02.

The Donnellys insist that they told the council they would only be staying at the address for nine days.

Currently they are on holiday in Cyprus, for a family wedding, and when they return on August 9 they will get the keys to their new home in Shaw Close.

Terry Donnelly said: "It is not as if Annalise was charging us rent - we said we were going to be living there for nine days until our holiday, then we would be getting our own place when we came back.

"We told them we that this would be our forwarding address so they could send the cheque out to us."

Alan Cotton, the borough council's strategic director of resources, said: "It appears there has been a misunderstanding regarding the length of time Miss Smith was to have friends staying with her.

"There will be no additional council tax charge to her for having guests for such a short period of time.

"We will be contacting Miss Smith to update the details and to apologise for any inconvenience caused."