MOST people dread the sound of a bill dropping through their letter box.

But Press reporter Lucy Stephens was merely amused when she arrived home to find an overdue electricity bill on her doormat - for the princely sum of two pence.

Officials from British Gas sent the bill to Lucy and her husband, Martin, at their home near Goole this week. It contained a detailed summary of their electricity account for the house in South Bank, York, which they sold and left last November.

According to the "final electricity bill", however, the bemused couple still owed a total of £0.02 pence to British Gas, despite having moved out of their York home six months ago.

When they phoned up the company to query the bill, they were advised by a customer services advisor that it would have to be paid within 14 days.

If it was not, they were told they would receive a red warning letter demanding immediate payment.

"My husband phoned up to ask if our bill was a joke!" said Lucy.

"But we were told it wasn't.

"The lady we spoke to was very nice about it, though. She seemed to think it was as ridiculous as we did.

"It does seem very silly to get a bill six months after we've moved out of the house for only 2p - it makes you wonder how much it cost them to put the paperwork together and send it in the first place.

"It's a sign of our bureaucratic times that so much effort has gone into pursuing something so trivial."

But when we contacted British Gas for a response, we were told that Lucy and Martin should not have been sent the bill in the first place - and it had been written off.

A spokeswoman told Lucy: "We would not chase a bill for such a small amount and it would be written off by our systems if it remained unpaid.

"We'd like to apologise for the fact that you weren't given the right information when you called into clarify the situation.

"But, we'd like to assure you that the bill has been written off and we are sorry for the inconvenience this has caused."