A warning was issued today to women in York about an article on dieting pills being sent to residents' homes.

Anne Chelton contacted the Evening Press when she received an American newspaper advertisement about dieting pills called Berry Trim Plus in a typewritten envelope.

At the top of the page, someone had written in ballpoint pen, "AD Chelton. Try it. It works!"

Mrs Chelton, of Foss Islands Road, said she had been upset to receive the unwanted mail through the post and believed it to be hate mail.

She said: "I telephoned my son because I was so upset and he said he had a friend who had also received the same thing."

Liz Levett, trading standards manager at the City of York Council, said it was not hate mail, but a marketing ploy which had been used before.

She said: "It is a marketing ploy, not a very nice one, and I know it has caused people distress in the past."

The newspaper page contains several case studies about women who say they have lost weight by taking the pills and it asks people to send £39.95 for a month's supply to an address in The Netherlands or by telephoning a freephone number.

Liz said: "Be very wary of sending any money abroad anywhere. If the goods don't turn up, you're not going to be able to get your money back.

"And the only type of slimming pills that ever work in this way can only be prescribed by a doctor."

Updated: 08:22 Friday, June 15, 2001