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A Kent tradesman who ill-advisedly decided to pay the London congestion charge online was buried by a 3,000-receipt tsunami for his trouble, the BBC reports.

Swanley geezer Graeme Ellis hit the Transport for London online presence to cough the £8 fee and then asked for some evidence of payment. Shortly thereafter, the postie duly deposited 500 receipts at his gaff, after which a Royal Mail van discharged a further 3,000.

A shaken but paper-rich Ellis told the beeb: "The second time it happened I ended up with four boxes, about 3,000 receipts all turned up on the doorstep in a big Royal Mail lorry. I think I might pay at the petrol station tomorrow. The kids love opening them though, we make castles out of them and towers."

TfL explaimed in a statement: "This is clearly an unacceptable error. Our service provider, Capita, have identified the fault and put in additional controls to ensure it does not happen in future."

The Register rang the Brazilian rainforest for comment this morning, but were told that it was unavailable due to "delicate negotiations with TfL regarding the supply of 18 billion envelopes for its 2008-9 billing campaign". ®