UK Rural post offices told to pay for GBP600,000 fraud
Hunderds of rural sub-post offices have been told they must repay money obtained by fraudsters who cashed forged family tax credit and child benefit cheques.
Postmasters and postmistresses are facing demands of more than pounds 1,000 — money they say they cannot afford to repay, given their small profit margins.
Post Office Ltd has written to them ordering them to repay the money they handed over when the gang targeted small post offices last year.
On the Isle of Wight, where about 30 sub-post offices were hit, some postmasters and postmistresses have refused to pay.
Rodney Archer, of the National Federation of Postmasters, said: “The Post Office network will suffer further closures if costs like these are simply passed down the chain for sub-post masters to meet.
“These were highly convincing forgeries that fooled the Crown Post Office and Girobank.”
He said he had heard that the forgeries had netted as much as pounds 600,000 across the country and claimed that the Inland Revenue ruined the chances of police catching the gang by “sitting on documents for nine months while the trail went cold”.
