Phone firm O2 apologises over letter addressed to ‘Mr Pedo File’

A horrified mum-oftwo says she was “angry and scared” when her mobile phone company sent her a letter addressed to “Mr Pedo File”. Zowie Sharples, aged 29, took advantage of a special offer last week by sending a request to O2 for some new sim cards. They arrived on Thursday in a blue O2-branded envelope — addressed to Mr Pedo File.

Ms Sharples, of Platt Hill Avenue, Deane, said: “It came through the letter box with some other post, and when I picked it up I had to look at it twice. I couldn’t believe it — I just thought ‘wow — there’s something you don’t see every day’. “I’ve got two children at home and seeing something like that isn’t very nice. I was angry and scared.”

Ms Sharples took the letter to the O2 shop in Bolton town centre to demand an explanation, but she said they were unable to help. She said: “The staff there didn’t apologise at all and they were very abrupt. They just said it could be a prank and it might as well say Father Christmas. I think there’s a big difference.”

An O2 spokesman said the name “Pedo File” had been entered when the sim cards were ordered via an advert on a website. He said: “It appears this order was placed using the offending name and e-mail address along with Ms Sharples’ home address. We will be investigating in more detail how the order could have been placed in this name. Thousands of O2 sim cards are ordered by new and existing O2 customers every month and while we do have procedures in place to ensure profanity is blocked, the way the name was spelt meant this was not picked up by our system. We apologise for the upset this has caused and we will be reviewing our systems to prevent this happening again.”