Gloucestershire postmistress faces jail after admitting £26k

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A CHELTENHAM sub-postmistress is facing jail after admitting a £26,000 fraud.

Wendy Buffrey admitted claiming that Up Hatherley Post Office had more cash than it did in financial statements over an eight-month period.

Judge Martin Picton told the Hatherley Road resident she could be locked up because of the size of the sum.

In a case lasting less than five minutes, Buffrey confessed to two charges of making a false representation to Post Office Ltd between April 9 and December 12, 2008.

Her solicitor Rosie Walsh asked for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.

Adjourning the case, Judge Picton, sitting in Cirencester, said: "I have no idea what the result is going to be. It will depend on the contents of the pre-sentence report.

Trust

"Certainly, though, given the amount of money involved, there must be a risk of custody."

Alex Ward, prosecuting, told the court that Buffrey, who made no financial gain from the fraud, had since sold her house and used the proceeds to repay Royal Mail.

Last night, Post Office Ltd spokeswoman Sue Dakin said: "All staff working in Post Office branches are in a unique position of trust and it is disappointing when that trust is breached. The overwhelming majority of our people are honest and achieve the highest standards of service in their day-to-day work."

Customers of the shop reacted with shock to the news. Margaret Adams, who walks to the post office from her home in Hatherley Lane, said: "I'm shocked to hear that. I think everybody was expecting Wendy to say she was not guilty. Everyone has been wondering what would happen over the past few months. I just hope the post office will stay open."

Buffrey has been suspended from her position since the irregularities were discovered in November last year.

She will return to court on October 18 for sentencing.

The future of the branch has been in doubt since May, when Post Office bosses said it was looking for a new sub-postmaster.

Plans to transform the post office in Hatherley Lane into an enlarged shop were met with protests in the summer. Neighbours said the alterations would result in noise and increased traffic flow.

Buffrey ran the franchise in Hatherley Road for more than eight years. She did not comment after the case.

The post office is currently being run by an independent company.

[subbie]

No personal gain???? So where did £26k go?

Into the ether that is the Horizon accounting system that's where. Yet another subbie forced to plead guilty on a technicality of law.

The irony is these Postmasters who adjust the bottom line to create a balance do so because no one will listen to them or help them, yet the reason the law says they must plead guilty is because of the covering up of the loss rather than the loss itself as doing this is depriving POL of the true picture ! As if POL are interested in investigating losses, they have no mechanism to do this.

Subbie