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Ammon News - The leader of Leeds City Council has been sent a postcard with a photo of his own face used as a stamp.

The picture of James Lewis was franked by Royal Mail, an official mark to show that postage does not need to be paid.

This suggests someone at the post depot will have looked at the Leeds United fan’s photo, thought nothing of it, and gave it the all-clear.

Sharing the delivery on Twitter, Cllr Lewis said: ‘A resident has stuck a small picture of my face where a postage stamp should go on a post card and Royal Mail have franked and delivered it to me.’

His followers cracked plenty of jokes, with one saying: ‘Now, according to some arcane rule, James is now the ruling Monarch.’

One suggested it’d make him the ‘King of Leeds’ at the very least, while another said his face now counted as legal tender.

Another follower added: ‘Bit worried James Lewis might be summonsed to the Palace for involuntary treason but first class response from Royal Mail.’

Someone pointed out that ‘very technically’, using his photo in this way could be an offence under Section 65 (fictitious stamps) of the Post Office Act 1908.

One follower suggested the sender used Cllr Lewis’ face because they thought his work is ‘is always first class’.

When someone told him ‘you do have regal countenance’, Cllr Lewis responded: ‘That’s the nicest thing anyone has said to me all year.’

In 2019 pictures emerged of forged stamps showing Labour politician Diane Abbott’s face on them.

A postal worker in London told Metro.co.uk at the time that these counterfeit stamps were making their way through the network, meaning they’d slipped through the net at the post office.

At the time a Royal Mail spokesperson said: ‘It is a crime to create or use counterfeit stamps. Royal Mail takes the necessary steps to protect stamp revenues which help fund the Universal Postal Service which serves the UK’s 30 million households and businesses.

‘We will seek to prosecute where we find someone has created counterfeit stamps or knowingly sold used stamps for re-use. This matter is being investigated by our Security team.’

*metro