A PENSIONER was fuming after he got off his sick bed to pay for and collect undelivered post that turned out to be a political campaigning letter sent without a stamp.

Leonard Zanders, 70, had been fighting a heavy cold at home in Verne Common Road, Portland, for three weeks when he received a card from Royal Mail telling him he had a letter to collect at the post office.

He decided to collect it as he was worried it was from his insurance company or his sister in Malta.

He paid a £1 handling fee and the 30p for postage to find out it was a campaign letter from South Dorset Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate for South Dorset Ros Kayes.

Mr Zanders said: “I was so annoyed.

“I felt like ripping it up when I opened the letter in the car.”

Mr Zanders sent letters to the two freepost addresses on his letter asking to be reimbursed.

He gave his name, address and phone number but said he was frustrated when he had no reply after two weeks.

“I’m an OAP so I can ill afford giving money away,” he added.

“What annoys me is they’ve not got in touch.

“It’s the principle of it.

“And if they want somebody to vote for them why act so silly and not put a stamp on the envelope or reply?”

As well as asking to be reimbursed Mr Zanders wants to know if he was the only person to have lost out or if others have paid to collect the letter.

“I won’t be voting Liberal Democrat but I wouldn’t anyway as I’m a staunch Labour supporter,” he added.

When the Dorset Echo informed Mrs Kayes of the complaint she said 13,000 letters have been sent out across South Dorset with Mr Zanders’ problem being the only one flagged up.

She said: “If a stamp happens to have fallen off I can only apologise. We will be refunding the gentleman.”

Mrs Kayes checked to find out if the Liberal Democrats had received a letter and said although it was posted on February 1 it was delivered last week (week commencing February 8). She said somebody has been to reimburse him but found nobody home.

She said: “We will be going back to give him his money and I will visit him myself.”

Mrs Kayes said sending the campaign letters is standard practice for politicians.

She said: “We are really sorry if that’s caused him any distress because it’s a nuisance if you are charged for a letter and secondly if you don’t get a response.”

Mr Zanders later said that following his call to the Echo someone had called at his home to pay him back his cash.