WHEN teenager Shane White was told he had a letter waiting for him at the post office he thought it might signal the start of a new career.

Despite the fact that the postage had not been paid, college-leaver Shane, 18, couldn't wait to get his hands on the envelope.

But when the Rochdale teenager opened it he was left fuming after finding it was no more than a political mailshot from his local MP.

Survey

It included a survey, a letter and a request to `add' Paul Rowen as a friend on the networking website Facebook. Shane, who had sent dozens of job applications off after completing his course, was outraged. He said: "When I got the `postage not paid' note from Royal Mail I thought it might be a letter about an interview. I'd been applying for a lot of jobs.

'Wasn't impressed'
"My sister picked it up from the post office for me and had to pay £1.27 including a £1 handling fee. When I opened it and realised it was from Paul Rowen I wasn't impressed. What a waste of money."

Expenses
Shane says he was left even more angry in light of the MPs' expenses storm.
He said: "You'd think with all the expenses MPs get he'd be able to afford a stamp, wouldn't you?" Shane's mum, Tracey, 43, said she `thought it was a joke' when she found out.

'Unfortunate'
Mr Rowen described the error as `unfortunate' and said he would refund the cost. He said: "I am a little surprised that this is only just coming to light as the survey was sent out nearly a year ago now.  My office sends out hundreds of letters to residents across Rochdale every month and I can assure everyone that that was just a simple clerical error."