A GREAT-grandmother found herself embroiled in a long-running rift with her granddaughter - after a Post Office blunder.

Alice McFadyen mailed a congratulations card and £20 to her granddaughter on the birth of her son in November 1996, but never got a reply.

She was so angry that she lost touch with her granddaughter, Dion Milling. But now, five years and three months after she posted it, the letter has been returned undelivered.

She said: "I couldn't believe it when the post came the other morning.

"I was furious. Dion must have thought I didn't care.

"All these years, I haven't seen my great-granddaughter because I thought Dion wanted nothing to do with us. If only I had known."

Mrs McFadyen, 73, of Winlaton, Gateshead, said she had been trying to get back in touch with her, but she had now moved from her Barrow-in-Furness address.

The letter, which was posted first class, had spent years in a Belfast sorting office, before it was returned.

Consignia, the new name for the Post Office, said it was unable to give an explanation.

Spokesman Sean Edmunds said: "It sounds like the letter has gone to our National Retail Sorting Office which is in Belfast.

"Letters which have been addressed wrongly are sent there and will usually be sent back within 14 days, so I have no idea why it took so long."