Father’s shock after his daughter’s school exam certificates arrive in the post 14 years later – with a £2.50 bill as the college hadn’t paid enough postage

A father was left astonished after his daughter’s school exam certificates turned up in the post 14 years late – and he was asked to pay a £2.50 fee.

Stamp dealer Martin Wybrow thought it was ‘weird’ when a ‘battered and crumpled’ envelope addressed to now grown up Rosie arrived in his letterbox.

The 70 year old’s daughter had moved out ten years ago and the father of three was confused to see it was from her old college and that it contained her GCSE and A Level certificates.

After an investigation Mr Wybrow, from Basingstoke, Hants, discovered they had been sent 14 years ago but had only just arrived due to a ‘mix up’.

He was then stunned at having to pay the Royal Mail £2.50 for a letter that was over a decade late – because the school hadn’t paid enough postage.

Martin Wybrow was left astonished after his daughter’s school exam certificates turned up in the post 14 years late – and he was asked to pay a £2.50 fee

Martin’s daughter’s GCSE exam certificates took a long time getting to him 

‘It all started when I saw a note through the letter box saying I owed the Royal Mail £2.50 for a letter addressed to my daughter,’ he said.

‘I thought this was weird because my daughter hadn’t lived here for the last ten years.’

He said the first thing he noticed was that the letter came from his daughter’s college – Queen Mary’s College in Basingstoke.

Mr Wybrow added: ‘I thought how strange it was.

‘I opened it and found it was full of her exam results certificates.

‘She told me when I contacted her that she had given those to the college in support of her university applications and this was the college sending them back to her.’

This prompted the father to ‘start an investigation’ to find out when the letter had been sent.

He said he ‘didn’t have much to go on’ but noticed the name of the headteacher on the college’s logo.

Mr Wybrow phoned the college and found out this particular teacher had left ‘before 2013’.

He continued: ‘I’m quite used to Great British stamps and a little investigation led me to the year 2009.

‘That coincidentally was when my daughter’s A-Level results were dated.’

Mr Wybrow is a semi-retired stamp dealer so used his expertise to find out where the stamp came from.

He said: ‘I have been working as a stamp dealer for about 15 years, so I got my catalogue of British stamps out, I looked through, and went back to 2009.

‘The stamp from 2009 in the book perfectly matched the stamp on the envelope.’

Mr Wybrow found the situation funny but criticised the Royal Mail for being ‘dismissive’ when he asked for a response.

He added: ‘It got me wondering why I was paying £2.50 to have this letter 14 years too late.

‘I wasn’t particularly cross. The only thing that peeved me was that Royal Mail made me pay.’

Pictured: Rosie and Martin Wybrow say they were amused by the length of time the delivery took 

His daughter Rosie, 32, attended Edge Hill University in Lancashire and now works as a secondary school English teacher in Torquay, Devon.

A spokesman for the Royal Mail said: ‘According to our data we received the letter on the 14th October 2023, so quite recently.

‘As it needed to be surcharged the re-delivery request didn’t come through until the 24th.

‘Where it was before it arrived at our delivery office we can’t speculate.’

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