A PENSIONER is hoping trading standards officers will get a refund from a company which sold her pills to cure arthritis.

Ann Tomlinson, 72, of Newton Aycliffe, ordered the £49.50 pills, claimed to cure arthritic pain, from a Green Park Institute brochure which was delivered to her home in January.

Soon after receiving the six-month supply of pills she received another brochure offering her £5 off her next order, so she sent £44.50 for the next six-month supply.

Before she received the second batch of pills, another letter arrived offering her pills to be taken with the arthritis medication to make it more effective.

Mrs Tomlinson said: "Alarm bells started to ring, and as the pills had not made any difference I decided to use the money-back guarantee and return them."

She wrote a letter to the company, returning the pills and cancelling the second order.

But the second batch of pills were delivered, and despite writing repeatedly to the company's post office box in Bedford, she has heard nothing.

She said: "I am so upset. £100 is a lot of money for someone like me to lose."

Durham County Council's trading standards officers have taken up Mrs Tomlinson's case and are trying to get a refund on her behalf.

A spokesman said: "Although the customer contact address is a post office box in Bedford, we have traced the company to Switzerland.

"The Office of Fair Trading are now trying to deal with the company through the Swiss authorities, but Switzerland is not in the EU and does not have any reciprocal arrangements so it could be difficult."

The spokesman said anyone with concerns about a company operating from a post office box should call trading standards, saying: "We would ask people to use their own judgement if sending money off to a PO box number."

The Green Park Institute could not be contacted by The Northern Echo.