Former Whitfield PO worker who embezzled £16k jailed

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Former Whitfield post office worker who embezzled £16,000 jailed

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A former post office counter clerk who embezzled more than £16,000 from Whitfield Post Office was jailed for 10 months on Tuesday.

Grant Keay, 42, had previously admitted the offence, which took place over two years and resulted in his employer, postmaster Rashid Hussein, having to repay the money to Post Office Ltd.

Mr Hussein and another member of staff were both suspended by the Post Office during the investigation into who was responsible for the fraud, Dundee Sheriff Court heard.

Keay, of Ogilvie Street, admitted that between September 22 2009 and January 19 2011, at Whitfield Post Office, Whitfield Drive, while employed as a counter clerk there, he embezzled £16,573.

Depute fiscal Eilidh Robertson told the court when sub post offices run short of cash there is a facility to lend cash to Post Office Ltd from the sub-postmaster’s own business.

The service is only available where a post office is situated within a sub-postmaster’s own shop and when used is logged on a computer as a Loan to Post Office Ltd.

When the money is repaid it is logged as Loan to Post Office Ltd Withdrawn.

As Whitfield Post Office is exclusively a post office, it does not meet the criteria for legitimate use of the service, Ms Robertson said.

“Between September 22 2009 and January 12 2011 a total of 78 Loan to PO and Loan to PO withdrawn transactions took place.

“Seventy-three of these were carried out on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays, the days when the accused worked.

“Sixty-three of the 78 transactions were logged under the accused’s username.

“The transaction history showed very clearly that the Loan to Post Office facility was being used by the accused to cover for cash he had stolen over the previous days and weeks.

“When cash was checked at the start of the next day the staff member would not be looking at what transactions had taken place, but would simply consult the online figure for cash and confirm the right amount was present.”

The court was told by June 2010 a weekly pattern was starting to emerge and by January 2011 the accused withdrew money using the method every single week, bar two.

“A total of £16, 573.82 was stolen using this method,” Ms Robertson continued.

She said in December 2011 Post Office Ltd’s fraud and non conformance team identified an unusually high number of Loan to Post Office transactions and following an audit, whereby neither the sub-postmaster, the accused nor his colleague could 
provide an explanation for the missing funds, all three were suspended.

Under the company’s contract with sub-post offices, Mr Hussein was personally liable for the loss of the money and he paid the full amount before being reinstated.

In July 2011 the company informed him that he was not suspected of any wrongdoing and, as he had repaid the money, they would not be taking the matter further but advised him to report the matter to the police, which he did.