A POSTAL mix-up has left a baffled woman from Darwen receiving mail destined for an army major thousands of miles away in America.

Susan Whittle, 41, a care assistant at Highfield House, Darwen, frequently receives the mis-directed letters at her home in Edmund Street.

The error appears to have been caused because the major lives at 27 Edmond Street in a town called Darien in the state of Connecticut.

Today, a spokesperson from the Post Office said: "We will look into the problems that are being encountered by Mrs Whittle and it seems like, if the envelope is clearly marked, something is going wrong in the process of the letter travelling from London to the US."

Susan said she first received a letter for the major, from London 18 months ago.

She explains: "The letter was addressed to Major Nathan Mobley and it was the same address as mine but Edmund was spelt Edmond.

"It was addressed to Darien, not Darwen and it was clearly marked to the USA.

"There was a clear air-mail stamp on the envelope with a £1 postage frank so it couldn't possibly be going anywhere local.

"I shrugged it off and just re-posted the letter, underlining the USA part so the delivery office would see it more clearly."

Susan thought nothing of it until another letter, with the exact same address, came through her letterbox last June. She did the same again and re-posted the letter, only to be faced with the same occurrence seven months later in December!

She said: "The third time it was just getting ridiculous so I took it to the sorting office in Darwen and they said a genuine mistake had been made and they would take care of it."

But last weekend she received another letter and decided to take further action.

Susan, a mother-of-one, said: "I was afraid these letters may have been very important so I opened it and got in touch with the writers."

In and Out Ltd, a naval and military club, had no idea that their letters, which contained details of forthcoming club events, were going astray.