CUSTOMS officer Martin Lindley was looking forward to getting behind the wheel of his Mercedes after a week working away.

But he was horrified when he pulled up outside his Egerton home to discover the car had been taken from his driveway.

Angry Mr Lindley phoned police, but minutes later, as he sorted through his post, he came across a letter from debt recovery company Dukes Certificated Bailiffs.

The letter was intended for the house's previous owner but Mr Lindley opened it in error.

It solved the mystery of the missing £2,000 car. It had not been stolen, it had been seized by bailiffs to pay council debts owed by someone else.

And it was due to be sold...within five days!

Mr Lindley, who has handled debt recovery as part of his job, phoned the company who returned the car 90 minutes later on the back of a recovery truck

But Mr Lindley remains angry at his experience -- and Bolton Council, who instructed the bailiffs, has apologised and vowed to tighten procedures.

They had been aware Mr Lindley now lived at the address as he was paying his council tax regularly by direct debit.

But 34-year-old Mr Lindley has criticised the bailiffs claiming they told him it was his own fault the car had been seized. He was told that he should have realised "something was up" from letters addressed to the previous householder, which he had sent on unopened.

Mr Lindley said: "I was blazing because the people I spoke to were very arrogant and blamed me."

"I would have been extremely angry if I had got back a week later and found my car in the hands of somebody else. It could easily have been sold."

"Just because a car is parked on a drive doesn't mean it is the property of the home owner." Mr Lindley, who works as part of a rapid response investigation team for Customs and Excise, has previously handled debt recovery and claims the company did not follow obligations to establish ownership of the car before taking it.

He now intends to take legal action and is seeking damages.

Colin Newby, proprietor of Staffordshire-based bailiffs Dukes, said: "It was an unfortunate and unintended incident which we are investigating.

"We have written to Mr Lindley but we are unable to say any more at this point."

Bolton Council is planning to alter its debt recovery system.

A spokesman said: "We can only apologise for this mix-up which should not have happened.

"We have not been able to contact the previous resident and this address was left on our files as a point of contact in case mail was being forwarded.

"Where a location has been left as a forwarding address we will send out a bill but then remove the address from our system."