A former landlord of a Dartford boozer has described her shock after a vile and malicious threatening message was shoved through her letterbox on their last day of trading.

Toni Gilham, who ran The Woodman Pub in East Hill for more than five years, was stunned after opening the mysterious letter to discover a worryingly venomous message printed on the front of a MoonPig card in bright, graphic font.

Inside of the card, the words ‘Don’t f***ing come back, b****’ printed on one side, with the other side reading: ‘Vile, Disgusting, Pig’.

Speaking to News Shopper, Mrs Gilham, who called time on her popular pub on May 25, said that although the disturbing greetings card did upset her, she was determined to not let it ruin their final bash that night.

"It was a pretty shocking to be honest and I wouldn't be human if I said it didn’t get to me.

"But we were determined not to let it ruin the last day," she said.

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Toni Gilham with her son, Jake

Mrs Gilham, who believes a disgruntled former customer may be behind the cowardly act, explained that she is no stranger to abuse due to her line of work but this incident had severely crossed a line.

"We were going to dismiss it completely because as landlords, we endured Facebook abuse on a regular basis. It comes with the territory.

"We’ve barred a handful of people during our time here, and only one of those wasn’t for drugs.

"You do feel very isolated sometimes because of it.

"You think that you’re such a hero by directing abuse at a single woman who can't do anything about it, but in the end you’re effectively bullying a single, female on her own," she said.

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Shocking messages were printed on both sides of the card

Speaking on the recent incident, Mrs Gilham said she was shocked that MoonPig allowed the card to be sent and questioned whether or not messages go through checks before being posted.

"We’re more angry than anything. There should be more regulations with these companies," she said.

When asked to comment on the situation, a MoonPig spokesman said: "At Moonpig we do implement processes to make sure hate speech and malicious content is spotted and removed.

"It’s horrible to hear that something slipped through the net this time, and we’ll be working closely with the police should a request come through to investigate further.

"We’d also like to take the opportunity to apologise on behalf of us here at Moonpig to the victim and will support them throughout the process."

Mrs Gilham reported the card to Kent Police the day she received it and according to a spokeswoman, detectives are investigating it as an act of malicious communication.