THE fiancee of a missing hiker from Portchester has suffered two weeks of distress after wrongly being billed £2,800 for a rescue helicopter used to hunt for him.

Marilyn Burt's nightmare ordeal, which started after Jeffery Moore, 37, went missing while walking alone in Heiligenblut, Austria, two months ago, became even worse when she was sent the demand.

Dutch company Christophorus Flugrettung, which launched a helicopter to scour the mountainous region for Mr Moore, should have sent the bill to the Austrian authorities.

But in a mix-up they invoiced Mrs Burt, 54, who became frantic after her insurance company, Lloyds TSB, refused to cover the cost.

She said: "It was a complete shock. I just wasn't expecting a bill. I can understand them making people pay who have not taken proper precautions, but Jeff had done.

"You just don't think about the cost involved, it's the last thing on your mind.

"You just want to find the person who is missing."

But the embarrassed rescue company has performed a U-turn after admitting that Mrs Burt should never have received the bill in the first place.

Mrs Burt added: "It was all an error. It was strange them addressing the letter to me, and the bill to Jeff, if it should have gone to the Austrian authorities."

Now Mrs Burt wants to concentrate on the search to find her fiance, who she believes may be suffering from concussion after a fall.

She told the Daily Echo: "It's just my theory that he may have gone to Italy.

"We went on holiday near there, and if he had hit his head he may have thought that's where he needed to go."