Mail arrives - 16 years late

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Monday, February 09, 2009, 10:00

A BUNDLE of letters forwarded from South Africa to an address in the Westcountry has finally reached its destination – 16 years after being posted.

Andrew Murrin, 59, received two A5 envelopes stuffed with letters at his home in Plymouth last week. They had been redirected from his former home in South Africa in the early nineties.

The batch of letters included statements from Midland Bank, now HSBC, and letters from a South African telecoms company.

Mr Murrin, who works as a driving instructor, said: "As far as I was concerned, I had cleared up all my business in South Africa, so I was amazed when they arrived."

He thinks the post must have been sent from South Africa before 1996 because of the postage stamp on the envelope. He said: "The airmail stamps have the old South African flag on them and I believe that disappeared in 1996. They've probably been in a box somewhere and someone found them recently and sent them on."


A Royal Mail spokesman said: "It's difficult to say what caused the delay, as we don't track individual items of unregistered mail. We can only apologise for any inconvenience caused."