Post office worker admits theft of £83k

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A post office assistant faces jail after admitting stealing £83,000 from the Black Country branch where she worked.

Neelam Hussain, aged 23, was expected to go on trial yesterday but pleaded guilty at the eleventh hour.

The trusted worker, of Village Road, Aston, admitted taking the cash from the post office branch in West Bromwich’s Farley Centre during a five-month spell in 2009. It is understood that Hussain had worked for Post Office Ltd for four years and auditors uncovered the theft.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard that money belonging to the post office had been transferred into bank accounts between July and November 2009.

During the brief hearing, Hussain spoke only to confirm her guilty plea, which was entered after negotiations between prosecutors and her solicitors.

She had originally been charged with stealing more than £100,000 from the post office but it was later revised.

The court hearing had got off to a faltering start yesterday morning when officials received a fax from City Hospital in Birmingham minutes before the trial had been due to start saying Hussain had attended the hospital for treatment.

However, Recorder Nigel Baker angrily summoned Hussain to court and the hearing went ahead yesterday afternoon.

The judge told Hussain: “You have pleaded guilty to a serious offence. I have ordered a pre-sentence report to enable the next judge to know about your background and your family circumstances.”

Hussain was granted bail but ordered to remain living at home in Aston and to report to her solicitors three times each week. She must also surrender her passport.

Hussain’s brother Sham-hir Hussain, 22, of Witton Road, Aston, who also worked in the post office, was cleared of transferring criminal property after prosecutors agreed to drop the matter.

The judge told him: “Your charges have been left on file and you should expect to hear no more about them.”


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Birmingham postal manager facing jail for £83,000 fiddle

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A CROOKED Post Office manager who siphoned off £83,000 into a bogus account is facing jail.

Birmingham woman Neelam Hussain, 23, was told she must remain in custody before knowing just how long she will be put behind bars.

Hussain, of Village Road, Aston, was in charge of the West Bromwich Post Office in the Farley Centre.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard she siphoned the money off into a bogus account.




She said the cash was to pay the medical bills of her injured mother-in-law in Pakistan. But Judge John Wait told her she was facing a “significant” jail term, adding: “I decline to accept that all this money has been spent in the way suggested without satisfactory evidence. I am not going to determine the length of the sentence you must serve because you now know, if you did not before, the significance of that information.”

He ordered that evidence should be produced to the prosecution and remanded Hussain in custody until early September, when she will be sentenced.

Mohammed Latif, for Hussain, who admitted theft, said she claimed the money had gone to a Pakistan hospital to pay for the treatment of her mother-in-law after she was seriously injured in a motorcycle accident.

Hussain – a woman of previous good character – was unable to supply evidence to support the claims, the court was told.

Simon Hughes, prosecuting, said: “She was young but she was an experienced postmistress.”

He told the court an audit revealed a shortfall of £101,617 and uncovered a “phantom” stock unit into which five payments totalling £83,000 had been made between October 16 and November five 2009. Hussain had tried to cover her tracks by borrowing a cheque from a workmate on the morning of the audit, filling it in for £83,000 and then putting it in a drawer at the Post Office.

Mr Latif said: “She has brought shame, embarrassment and disgrace on herself and her family none of whom have ever been in trouble before.”


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West Bromwich postmistress jailed over £83,000 theft http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2011 ... 000-theft/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A former Black Country postmistress has been jailed for 21 months for stealing £83,000 from the office she managed.

Neelam Hussain, aged 23, syphoned off the money into a bogus account while in day-to-day charge of the post office in West Bromwich’s Farley Centre where she had worked for five years, a judge heard. She claimed she used the money to pay the hospital bills of her mother-in-law in Pakistan.

An audit in November 2009 at the post office revealed a £101,617 shortfall in the books and uncovered a “phantom” stock unit into which five payments totalling £83,000 had been made between October 16 and November 5, 2009.

Hussain tried to cover her tracks on the day of the audit by borrowing a cheque from a workmate, filling it out for £85,000 and putting it in a drawer.

When that ruse failed she accused another member of staff who she claimed had “fitted her up,” before admitting guilt on the day her trial was due to start.

Hussain, of Village Road, Aston, Birmingham, admitted theft at an earlier hearing and was sentenced yesterday.