THIEVING POSTIES COST US MILLIONS

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/310 ... s-millions" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

ONE postman is sacked every working day for stealing mail. More than 1,700 have been prosecuted and dismissed in the past five years.

The figures are revealed as Royal Mail is being forced to pay big rises in compensation for lost items. Complaints about missing mail have soared by 24 per cent this year.

During the first nine months of the current financial year Royal Mail received 271,524 ­complaints from customers whose parcels or letters had gone missing, a rise of 52,484 compared with the same period in 2010/11.

Compensation payments for customers have also risen but not as sharply. Royal Mail paid out £3.86million over lost mail between April and December 2011, £606,860 more than the ­previous year and a rise of 18.6 per cent.

The total compensation paid for the failure of Royal Mail’s services in the nine months to December was £4.96million, up by £300,000 on the previous year.

Royal Mail publishes quarterly reports detailing customer complaints but not the extent of theft by employees. However, following a Freedom of Information request, the company disclosed that 1,759 employees were sacked and prosecuted for stealing mail in the five years between 2007 and 2011.

Dismissals peaked in 2008 when 401 employees were dismissed and prosecuted and have gradually declined since. However, last year’s figure of 309 means that one postal worker is sacked for theft for every working day of the year.

The company claims to operate a zero tolerance policy against staff who steal mail but has faced criticism that it does not do enough. Courts have also come under fire for not imposing stiff enough sentences.

In one case a postman escaped jail after claiming he was ­traumatised into stealing parcels after going on Disneyland’s Thunder Mountain roller coaster.

Father-of-three George Ramplin, of Harwich, Essex, a postman for 22 years, pleaded guilty last June to four offences of theft and was given a six-month community order with a six-month curfew between 7pm and 7am.

In another case, student Raza Hussain, 18, of Bristol, admitted two counts of theft while working as a Christmas casual for Royal Mail. He told magistrates he was worried a conviction for dishonesty would affect his plans to become a banker and was given a 12-month community order.

The big rise in complaints and missing mail comes as staff numbers are cut and the volume of post handled is in freefall as ­customers move to e-mail, texting or online networking or use rival delivery firms. The number of letters and parcels delivered by Royal Mail has fallen by 25 per cent in the last five years and this side of the business lost £120million in 2010/11.

The company has axed 65,000 workers since 2002 and tens of thousands more of its 163,000 employees face redundancy as it prepares for privatisation.

The revelations of dishonesty and unreliability are bad news for Royal Mail’s chief executive Moya Greene, who nevertheless earned a £142,000 bonus on top of her £500,000 basic salary in the same year.

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said: “Royal Mail needs to stamp out the criminal behaviour if it is to be trusted with deliveries. It’s wholly unaccept­able that so many Royal Mail staff are rifling through post looking for goodies to swipe.”

Royal Mail spokesman James Eadie said: “The vast majority of the 163,000 people employed by Royal Mail are scrupulously honest. The overwhelming majority of all letters posted arrive safely at the correct destination.”

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Well the first in a long line of anti postie articles that will pop up now we have had a 3.5% pay rise and the Pension being taken over. Dingo was right by the looks of it.

[music4essex]

No Mention of managers yet again, but it will only get worse especially with casualised labour now that RM have either IHR or pushed out the door.

Nearly all the posties that were once dedicated to the job now look at Royal Mail differently I know I do.

But I would not steal

It would be curious to know how many postpersons had been sacked in the 70's 80,s 90.s

Essex mum who has just sent her son off to paintballing time for

[fishtank]

The people who "write" these stories,i won't even call them journalists......need to remember that the internet is far more permanent and accessible than the printed word.
Here is a remarkably similar story in the Daily Mail from 2008 and by similar i mean almost identical in structure and content with only the dates and figures changed to the point where if i was the original author i would be speaking to a lawyer....of course that's assuming he didn't copy&paste the story in the first place.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... -mail.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Lounge Lizard]

"Dismissals peaked in 2008 when 401 employees were dismissed and prosecuted and have gradually declined since. However, last year’s figure of 309 means that one postal worker is sacked for theft for every working day of the year." - is this actually so, or do these figures cover theft AND willful delay ?

[fishtank]

However, last year’s figure of 309 means that one postal worker is sacked for theft for every working day of the year." - is this actually so, or do these figures cover theft AND willful delay ?

In response to the first point of your request the table below identifies the number of Royal
Mail staff who have been dismissed or resigned over allegations of theft over the last five
years. These figures relate to Royal Mail Letters employees, casuals and agency staff. The
table below is based on calendar years and the figures relate to the number of dismissals
or resignations following interviews under caution conducted with the exited staff member
by Royal Mail Group Security.

Year Total
2007 364
2008 401
2009 345
2010 340
2011 309

[Straight4ward]

What’s that about 0.25% of the number employed by RM?

In a way, it’s surprising it’s not more.

On this basis our honesty is better than the overall adult population but I guess quoting that statistic wouldn’t fit in with the preconceived ideas.

Still never mind, the way the police enquiries are going into press affairs at Wapping, our scumbags will soon be joined by some of theirs.

FOI on the number of press employers with criminal convictions, anyone?

[oypostie]

Not sure about the zero tolerance policy. Several staff in our office have been dismissed due to theft, with evidence found, in the last 12 months but i'm not aware of any going to court.

[DGP1]

Not being funny but what kind of people are employed in these offices? We've lost one due to not delivering D2Ds and one for bringing mail back on a Saturday but that's been it.

[5plusbonusball]

What about the thieves in all the other professions, gas workers nicking parts, shop workers nicking stock, factory workers nicking stock, garages nicking by lying etc etc but it's always postmen and women who are regularly called theives or lazy people. Enough I think.

[wannabeek]

What about the thieves in all the other professions, gas workers nicking parts, shop workers nicking stock, factory workers nicking stock, garages nicking by lying etc etc but it's always postmen and women who are regularly called theives or lazy people. Enough I think.

But because of the nature of this profession - i.e. we are regularly handling an item that belongs to one individual and handing it to another, I think there has to be a higher level of trust than a shopworker who is handling an item belonging to a massive corporation and pocketing it for themselves.

I know this story looks bad for posties but I think it's a good thing that the idea of a postie nicking from the mail is an outrageous thing which gets the tabloids up in arms - maybe the courts will one day handle the matter more severly. Wishful thinking maybe, but I still feel to be seen as a respectable and trustworthy member of society simply because I am a postman - that's certainly how the vast majority of people speak to me anyway. It might just be because I live in a nice area though, who knows.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

What about the thieves in all the other professions, gas workers nicking parts, shop workers nicking stock, factory workers nicking stock, garages nicking by lying etc etc but it's always postmen and women who are regularly called theives or lazy people. Enough I think.

But because of the nature of this profession - i.e. we are regularly handling an item that belongs to one individual and handing it to another, I think there has to be a higher level of trust than a shopworker who is handling an item belonging to a massive corporation and pocketing it for themselves.

I know this story looks bad for posties but I think it's a good thing that the idea of a postie nicking from the mail is an outrageous thing which gets the tabloids up in arms - maybe the courts will one day handle the matter more severly. Wishful thinking maybe, but I still feel to be seen as a respectable and trustworthy member of society simply because I am a postman - that's certainly how the vast majority of people speak to me anyway. It might just be because I live in a nice area though, who knows.

I get respect from the people on the council estate I deliver to so its good and in the working class area that I live in so its good that nearly everyone respects the hard work that we do. But what pisses me off about this article (and one they have written today as anExpress Comment) are quite clearly designed to attack us as a group of people. There is no mention of the how many people work for Royal Mail and that its a very small fraction of us that are thieves (about 1/4 of 1%), or of the outrage that posties feel when the thieves are so lightly dealt with.

Yes its a good idea that the general public should be aware that thieving can and does happen in Royal Mail, just as it does in the rest of society, but to give the impression that its rife, accepted and widespread is unforgivable.

[5plusbonusball]

Yes its a good idea that the general public should be aware that thieving can and does happen in Royal Mail, just as it does in the rest of society, but to give the impression that its rife, accepted and widespread is unforgivable.

Like all the mp's of this **** country say ------------- HERE, HERE!

[thecyclingexpostie]

it was in the express (and previously the daily mail). need i say more

[hypa]

not sure... but i think they forgot to mention in the article that

Royal Mail no longer compensates Business Account customers for lost 1st / 2nd class / recorded delivery mail since Jan 9th 2012

so that policy might save RM few bob