A heavily pregnant woman recovering from meningitis was visited by bailiffs for non-payment of council tax despite paying her bill on time.

Bailiffs paid a visit to Kimberly Dore’s house last Friday to inform her that she owed £670 for missing a council tax payment.

Nine months pregnant Miss Dore, 21, is due to give birth to her second child in less than two weeks.

After receiving a court summons over the missed payment in June, Kimberly visited the council to present the receipt from Barclays Bank showing that she had made the payment on May 2.

Sutton Council told her that her council tax payments were up to date and to ignore any future letters requesting payment.

Kimberly, who contracted meningitis in October and is still suffering the after effects, was petrified after finding a bill for £670 on her doorstep on Friday.

Kimberly said: “I was in a right state. I don’t know very much about bailiffs, all I know is that they come into your house and take your things. I’m due to give birth in two weeks and with Christmas coming up as well I was horrified to think I owed anything.”

The mother-of-one said she visited the council on Monday to ask what was going on. It was explained to Kimberly that they had a record of a payment from Barclays, but it had not been made in her name.

“I wanted an explanation and an apology for the council being so heavy-handed when it was their mistake. But all they told me was they will put a freeze on the bailiffs coming round, but I don’t know what is going to happen next. They couldn’t confirm that this would be the end of it.”

A Sutton Council spokesman said: “We did receive a payment from Barclay’s Bank on the May 2 but it had no account reference or details so we were unable to credit it to Miss Dore’s account and the money was held in a separate suspense account.

“We did write to Miss Dore on a number of occasions with regards to what was thought to be an outstanding payment. It would appear that there was a lack of effective communication with her about her council tax account.

“Miss Dore’s account will be updated and cleared and we will also write to her explaining how this situation regrettably occurred. We will apologise for any distress or inconvenience caused.”