Louise Lourenco-Bone saw the bag in Celandine Drive, St Leonards, when she left at 1pm last Thursday, thinking it was rubbish left by the cleaner.

It was only when her husband Liam returned from work at 6pm and brought the sack up to their flat that they realised it was stuffed full of parcels and letters.

Louise, 23, contacted Royal Mail immediately and the sack was picked up by a shocked and apologetic collection manager on Friday morning.

Louise said: "It's people's post, people's bank details. We were quite shocked. The first thing that goes through your mind is, what if it was my post?

"They picked it up on Friday morning. They seemed quite worried about it.

"They thanked me and said they are going to write to me. They said they've got to look into it. They said that it was probably one of their vans who've delivered just left it in the wrong place.

A spokesman for Royal Mail said: "We apologise. We assure you we treat the security of the post as paramount. It was a genuine mistake and I am sure it won't happen again."