Yorkie bars send posties packing

Seventeen postmen from the same sorting office have won free holidays after a chocolate manufacturer produced too many winning tickets.

When postman Ian Draper bought his daily Yorkie bar for 30p on Friday night, he was unaware of quite where his sweet tooth was about to lead him.

Opening the wrapper, he found he had won a "Dirty Days Out" free adventure weekend riding on Sherman Tanks and playing war games with spray paint. Mr Draper, 33,bought a second Yorkie to celebrate. This was also a winner.

Suspecting he might be mining an unusually rich seam of chocolate, Mr Draper told a colleague with him to open a third bar, then a fourth, a fifth, a sixth and a seventh. All were winners.

It was clear to Mr Draper that all 36 bars in the box were likely to come with weekends away.

He rushed back to Worcester sorting office to deliver the good news that not only were there free holidays to be had for Postman Pat but there were also enough for his cat and all his mates, and returned to the store in Holt Heath, near Worcester, with orders for 22 bars for 16 other postmen.

Word spread quickly around the village and locals snapped up the remaining 14 winning bars.

Shop owner Mick Badgery, 42, said: "If all the postmen take the holiday at the same time there'll be no one left to sort the mail."

Nestle, who make Yorkie Bars, were offering 250 holidays in the nationwide promotion which runs till the end of the year.

Nestle spokeswoman Hilary Parsons said: "The machine that made the winning bars inadvertently made a few too many. It was a few minutes in the factory before anyone realised what had happened.

''We've already had reports of another winning batch at a vending machine at a college in Northampton.

"We have no idea how many more extra tickets there are but we will honour all those that are found. It will cost us a bit but it's good news for Yorkie fans."

Mr Draper was unavailable for comment yesterday - he was away on holiday.