PENSIONER Rhoda Park has been threatened with legal action by the district council after its own blunder caused her to stop paying a bill by direct debit.

She described the letter she received on Saturday as "distressing" and "quite nasty" and said it arrived without warning.

Mrs Park, aged 84, of Leigh, was one of 1,400 people the council mistakenly overcharged for its services in January.

On the advice of her bank, she cancelled her quarterly direct debit for a Worcestershire Careline panic alarm after the council charged her £3,996 instead of £39.96.

Fortunately, she did not have that amount of money in her account. But to prevent it happening again, she agreed with the council in a phone call that she would instead pay by cheque.

She was told she would not have to pay again until May 1, but believes the fact that she had not yet paid for the first quarter was not taken into account.

"I had no word until that nasty letter came through. I thought it was a bit of a cheek really," she said.

Mrs Park is also concerned that the council gave her just seven days to pay the bill before taking legal action in the letter, which was dated April 13 but did not arrive until April 22.

She has now written to the council to express her disgust and enclosed the money due.

"It just left a nasty taste in my mouth. I don't think they're much good at all," she said.

Her daughter Ann Pallett, who lives next door, described the letter as "absolutely dreadful".

She said her mother got upset after reading it and it was lucky she was close by.

"If there are other old people in Malvern on their own with nobody to turn to I think that would be a really frightening situation," she said.

Peter Gillett, the council's director of finance, said the council took its customer relations seriously and he would be responding to Mrs Park's concerns in a positive and supportive way.

The council has paid out £3,100 of taxpayers money in compensation to customers overcharged in January, which Mr Gillett said was less than anticipated.