Graham McDonald was left stressed and upset by the letter addressed to 'the occupier' at his High Street home on Thursday, September 18 from Advantis Credit.

The letter was demanding payment of £546.87 stating the amount was owed to Eon (formerly Powergen) and must be paid immediately. If Advantis did not hear from the occupier within 14 days then legal action would be taken to recover the debt.

Initially Mr McDonald feared the letter was a con after he tried to contact Advantis Credit and the phone went dead when he gave the operator his reference number.

But having reported it to police, who checked out the company and found Advantis Credit was bona fide and gave him a telephone number for Eon, Mr McDonald contacted Eon who confirmed the letter had been sent to him in error and admitted it should have gone to a business customer in Benwick.

Having sorted the matter out with Eon they contacted Advantis to explain the situation and Mr McDonald received a call from the debt collection agency explaining the problem had been resolved.

"A telephone message from Mike at Advantis was left on my answering service saying that the problem had been resolved. There was no expression of apology or remorse.

"I subsequently telephoned Eon and suggested that their mistake had cost me time, money and caused considerable stress and suggested had this been set to an elderly person the level of stress could have been terminal.

"I asked for a letter confirming that there will be no further action, an apology and compensation. I stated that unless I heard from them by midday on Thursday (September 25) I would inform the local and national press, my MP and the regulatory service – they have made no further contact.

"Surely a debt collection agency should not be allowed to send such threatening material in such a cavalier manner, giving no details of how the debt was incurred, nor name of the account holder. I believe such behaviour should not go unchallenged," wrote Mr McDonald.