ROYAL MAIL and an international publishing company are to investigate how dozens of sacks stuffed with undelivered mail ended up dumped in two remote locations in Watford.

Staff at Majestic Wine, in Otterspool Way, contacted police after 37 post bags stuffed full of undelivered mail were found dumped in the warehouse’s car park last Friday morning.

Royal Mail staff were then called to the scene to collect the rain-sodden bags.

The sacks contained hundreds of undelivered letters stamped with a PO Box address in Bushey, belonging to Condé Nast, publishers of glossy magazines Vanity Fair, GQ and Vogue.

The incident came two days after the Watford Observer was called to investigate a further 15 bags filled with similar letters.

A walker stumbled across the second pile of bags dumped half-a-mile up Otterspool Lane, a quiet country road that is almost impossible to drive up.

Again, the bags contained mail shots with the same Bushey PO Box address for Condé Nast.

All the mail dated back to September 2007 – the height of the Post Office crisis that crippled services in and around Watford.

Speaking on behalf of Condé Nast, Harriet Robertson, said a thorough investigation would now be conducted.

She said: “Condé Nast is extremely disturbed by this situation and we are investigating fully with all parties involved.”

Hayley Fowell, external relations manager for Royal Mail Group, the company believed the bags had been dumped by a third party, likely to have been called to collect the returned items.

Ms Fowell said: “Royal Mail has recovered around 20 bags of mail found dumped in Otterspool Way in Watford.

“The mailsort items were all for one firm’s address in Bushey and had previously been returned by Royal Mail to that address for disposal.

“According to investigations by Royal Mail and the firm concerned, the items appear to have been disposed of by a third party.”