ROYAL MAIL SOLD "LOST" £10,000 ART FOR £20

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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ROYAL Mail bagged a cash windfall of £824,000 last year by auctioning items that got “lost” in the post.




The controversial practice has netted £3.2million over the past five years.

One valuable work of art was sold for just £20. The untitled painting by Mathias Kauage, whose work normally fetches up to £10,000, had safely travelled 10,000 miles from Australia before vanishing in the British postal system.

Owner Rebecca Hossack, who runs an art gallery in London’s Fitzrovia, called in the police after being approached by a man who bought the painting at auction. He agreed to return it to her.

Royal Mail bosses have admitted selling about 75,000 undelivered items a year but until now have never disclosed how much they make from the practice.

Mail which is not addressed properly, too big for letter boxes and not claimed from post offices, or with incorrect postage paid is sent to the National Returned Letter Centre in Belfast. It stores items for four months but if they remain unclaimed they are sent to Surrey-based Wellers Auction House to go under the hammer.

The centre in Belfast, which employs 160 full-time staff, successfully redirected 5.2million items last year, but this left another 20million undelivered.

Owners of items auctioned are entitled to claim compensation. The policy has angered customers, however.

It came to light four years ago when retired teacher John Beattie found his “lost” bagpipes for sale on eBay.

He sold a pair of the instruments to a collector in Belgium for £1,500 and sent them using Royal Mail’s Airsure service but they failed to reach their destination and were sold for £60 at auction. Mr Beattie spotted them again when the new buyer put the bagpipes up for sale on the internet.


A Royal Mail spokesman said: “The National Returned Letter Centre operation costs Royal Mail more than £4million annually. Money raised from the sale of items we are unable to return to the sender is earmarked to help Royal Mail maintain this free and valuable service. All we are seeking to do is recoup some of the costs.”

Postal industry expert Steve Lawson said the policy may need regulation in the light of privatisation plans.

“Auctioning off lost items could be regarded as a profitable business and the drive for profit could outstrip any moral or legal obligation to trace their rightful owners.”

[Straight4ward]

Dear British Public, before you go into one of epic proportions, joining Angry of Tunbridge Wells and all the other Daily Mail readers –

1) Wrap items securely and adequately for their contents.

2) Make sure you’ve got the recipient’s correct and full address.

3) Don’t use fancy fonts or handwriting that looks as if you were suffering from St. Vitus’s dance at the time.

4) Above all - put a return address on the items you post.

There, how difficult is that?

[glenfiddich]

apparantly a bit too difficult for some people