LIBERAL Democrats in Malvern face a £1,200 bill after falling prey to a "dirty tricks" campaign.

The party received a mountain of junk mail after Parliamentary candidate Mike Hadley urged the public to take advantage of a Freepost service to express their views.

More than 5,000 office-standard envelopes were posted to the Liberal Democrats, containing information leaflets such as Know Your Rights in Urdu, giveaway CD-Roms, and diaries. The letters had identical printed address labels.

"This was a very shrewd and cold-blooded dirty tricks campaign," said the Liberal Democrats' campaign director, Jock Gallagher.

"I've never seen anything like it in 40 years of campaigning. Some of the packages were over the weight limit because they contained diaries and we've got to pay the excess charge."

He claimed the ruse was an attempt to spike the party's guns.

If there had been an election in May, Mr Hadley would have been allowed just over £9,000 in election expenses. The £1,200 bill would have "made a considerable dent", said Mr Gallagher.

But he vowed not to abandon the Freepost system, saying the Liberal Democrats would trust voters' "sense of decency" in future.

"We're negotiating with the Royal Mail about the cost, but if we have to pay up we won't bleat about it," said Mr Gallagher.

Mr Hadley, who believes he will topple Conservative West Worcestershire MP Sir Michael Spicer at the polls, said the Freepost survey had been designed to canvass public opinion about the party's health strategy.

"This was a valuable piece of research on people's views of the NHS that someone was trying to scupper," he said. He claimed the tactics "gave politics a bad name".

A spokesman for the Royal Mail said he sympathised with the Liberal Democrats' plight.

"But we're not responsible for the contents of the mail, we're just here to deliver it," he said.