�A woman has blasted Romford sorting office after she posted 10 invitations to a family event – and only one arrived intact.

Mary Warren, 59, sent letters to family and friends on May 23, inviting them to her mum’s 90th birthday party in Brentwood.

But the medical secretary realised something was amiss when one person after another began calling to say their letters had either been sliced open and forwarded in a plastic bag, or simply hadn’t arrived at all.

“When my brother first phoned to say the front of his envelope had been cut off and the letter sent with a note of apology, I didn’t think anything of it.

“Then I had an email from a chap in the Brentwood sorting office saying he had found an invitation and to let me know one hadn’t arrived. I re-sent it and that didn’t arrive either

‘Suspicious’

“At first I thought it was a quirk, then it happened again and again and I really began to get suspicious.”

Mary, whose father worked for Royal Mail, had sent all 10 invites to addresses across England from a postbox in Hainault Road, just round the corner from her Cedar Road home.

Only one made it to its destination in Faversham, in Kent, intact.

“Royal Mail isn’t doing too well anyway,” said Mary, “so this sort of thing won’t do its reputation much good.”

She added: “My cousin is now posting her mail in Brentwood so it doesn’t have to go through Romford.”

Mary has since sent three letters of complaint to Romford Sorting Office’s customer services department, in Crow Lane, and received a standard response and stamps – but no explanation on why her letters were sliced open or lost.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: “We’re concerned to hear that Ms Warren did not receive the usual high level of service which she expects from Royal Mail and we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused her.

Stamps

“Our customer services team investigated the complaint and, in line with our policy, offered Ms Warren six first class stamps as compensation. Of the 62 million items of mail we handle every day, the vast majority arrive safely.”

The birthday party went ahead on Sunday, June 26.