A COUNCIL blunder left a works soccer team threatened with legal action...unless they paid one penny!

The letter was sent to the team manager at Crown Eyeglass, Blackburn, for hire of the football pitch in Witton Park - even though the bill for £287.25 was paid in full last September.

Blackburn Council blame a computer error but it has left company operations director Kate Thompson hopping mad.

She said: "I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a court warning notice saying we owed them 1p, especially when we had paid up the full amount six months ago.

"I contacted the borough solicitor who said it has been caused by a computer blunder.

"But surely all legal letters like this should be checked before they are mailed out.

"If it had gone to someone who wasn't used to dealing with legal matters it could have scared the living daylights out of them.

"It would have cost a lot more than 1p to send this letter out." The mix-up was caused when the company got a bill for £287.25 to hire the football pitch for 25 weeks.

They then got two further invoices each for £143.63 - which adds up to one penny more than the bill they had paid - but were told to ignore them because they had already paid.

Blackburn Council spokeswoman Suzanne Halliwell said a letter of apology would be sent out to Crown Eyeglass.

She said: "We have a system which automatically sends out demands for payments that haven't been made.

"Usually we manage to intercept letters like this but unfortunately not on this occasion."

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