Royal Mail staff tampering with mail, can I sue?

[Vexxed Person]

Hi all

 

For 18 months, Royal Mail has failed to deliver around 70% of my mail. In addition, my bank has written at least 4 times to say Royal Mail staff are returning my mail to sender claiming they cannot access my address and / or I have moved. Both are malicious lies.

 

I have made at least 10 complaints and they simply deny their staff are doing it - but have not asked to see the letters from my bank.

 

I reported it to Action Fraud who say there is nothing they can do - last letter from Action Fraud did not even reach me, like much of my mail.

 

For the past year, the delivery officer has been harassing me on the street in retaliation for making complaints. I reported him to the Met police but don't yet have enough for a prosecution to stick: it's his word against mine so I am filming him every time he harasses me, which as you can imagine is only fuelling his aggression (i am a small female so it's pretty intimidating).

 

The fall out from non del of mail has been considerable, missed hospital appointments, thrown off my medical consultants' lists for non attendance, mortgage problems, bank refusing to send documents to me because of the security risk, etc.

 

I want to take Royal Mail to court but am aware of their indemnity clause. I cannot sue under Goods and Services because I have no contract: the contract is with the sender. None of the senders are prepared to get involved.

 

On what premise could I sue them for interfering with my mail? The police say it is a civil matter even though it is technically a criminal offence as i understand it.

 

I may have screwed up by sending them a letter before action in which i quoted the Goods and Services Act; I now realise I cannot use that premise.

 

I would be immensely grateful for advice: essentially - on what premise can I sue for tampering with my mail?

[renegadeimp]

You need to conclusively prove the mail is being tampered with.

 

Are they opening it or ate they just returning it as undeliverable.

 

If the latter then you need to force them to investigate. Take it out of the complaints departments hands and go higher. Including to the ombudsman.

[Mr.P]

Interfering with post during the course of delivery is a criminal offence under the Communications (Postal Services) Act of 2011 (if my memory serves me correctly). If a complaint at local level has failed to resolve the issue you can raise the issue with the Postal Redress Service.

 

If the delivery person is harassing you and it is causing distress, then that too is a criminal offence, and one that the Police can and should deal with. Keep a record of each incident and record as much of it as you can. If the lower levels of the police refuse to investigate, insist on speaking to a higher ranking officer. Should that fail to trigger an investigation, try the IPCC.

 

In the meantime, do you have a friend or family that could act as a "care of" address ?

[maroondevo52]

Why, if what you say is true would be the reason for Royal Mail doing this ?

[Ethel Street]

Do you have a dog?

[GrumpyToSayTheLeast]

There had to be a reason here? Can we have the full story please?

[sgtbush]

My thinking too.

There is a lot more going on than in the original post

[ploddertom]

Do you appear on https://www.royalmail.com/find-a-postcode

[Vexxed Person]

No i do not have a dog.

I am frankly surprised at some of the sexist "blame the victim" responses here:

 

I have no idea why I, a woman who lives alone, am being targeted

- you would have to ask royal mail staff.

 

I suspect for identity theft because everything "missing" is sensitive, eg bank account details, cards, NI number, etc.

 

I have been to POSTRS, they were useless;

they will only comment on Royal Mail's failure to follow its own complaints process correctly, nothing else.

 

As stated, I have reported the harassor to the Met.

I was advised to gather more evidence so am filming him when I see him.

This is making him more aggressive.

 

Met says they will not touch theft of mail and that it is a civil matter however I do believe it is a criminal matter.

 

Evidence:

I do not receive around 70% of my mail and one bank has written 4 x to say Royal Mail is claiming i no longer live here/that they cannot access the address,

another bank wrote once to say the same.

 

I cannot reasonably be expected to show they are opening the mail because I don't have access to any CCTV within the sorting office.

 

But I can certainly prove it on the balance of probabilities, which is the burden of proof required for a civil claim.

 

For a criminal claim, ie the harassment the burden of proof is "beyond reasonable doubt" hence continuing to collect video evidence.

 

But as per my original post

- i don't know on what basis I can

- not the Provision of Goods and Services in any case.

 

I do not have anyone who I can have post redirected to, not locally anyway.

 

I have been to Royal Mail's security team too and they were not interested.

My sense was that unless any corrupt activity involves loss of revenue for them, they don't care.

 

I have now written to the chief exec who simply referred me back to the complaints dept - who simply send out generic responses to complaints without providing substantive answers.

 

It seems royal mail staff are untouchable and can do just as they please without fear of repercussions.

 

What are you suggesting? I am a 50 year old widow living alone. What else do you think is going on?

Edited July 10, 2018 by dx100uk
merge

[Mr.P]

No i do not have a dog. I am frankly surprised at some of the sexist "blame the victim" responses here: I have no idea why I, a woman who lives alone, am being targeted - you would have to ask royal mail staff. I suspect for identity theft because everything "missing" is sensitive, eg bank account details, cards, NI number, etc.

 

I have been to Royal Mail's security team too and they were not interested. My sense was that unless any corrupt activity involves loss of revenue for them, they don't care.

 

Having reviewed the posts made in this thread, I don't see anything to suggest "blame the victim" or anything that could be misunderstood as being "sexist". If anything, the questions ask have been to identify if Royal Mail had any reasonable grounds for refusing to deliver to your property. Dangerous dogs are an occupational hazard for postmen/women, but as you do not have a dog, this can not be used as a reason to stop deliveries. If your house appears in the PAF database, then there is no technical reason for failing to deliver.

 

Royal Mail do take the issue of mail security very seriously, and I have seen people dismissed for tampering with letters. Finding the right person to talk to is going to be your first hurdle. Unfortunately, Royal Mail do not publish telephone numbers for their investigations officers.

[Ethel Street]

I hope you weren't referring to my question about do you own the dog when you complain about "sexist "blame the victim" responses here". It was a simple question to discover if that could have been the reason mail was being returned as "unable to gain access". That is precisely what the post office do if they believe there is a dog loose on the premises.

 

 

Have you been a victim of ID theft? If you are concerned that sensitive information from your bank is going missing can you arrange to collect it from your bank branch?

 

 

You say you can prove on balance of probabilities that your mail is being opened but from what you've posted I can't see you have any evidence that would stand up in court.

 

As for harassment, you say "so am filming [the postman] when I see him" and that is "making him more aggressive". You may be more at risk of arrest for harassment then he is if you continue doing that. It's one thing filming someone once they actually start harassing you, but that's not what you are doing, from what you say.

 

You could contact your MP and see if they could help.

 

Have you tried sending test letters to yourself with proof of posting? See how many arrive. Send some signed for and see if they arrive. Then you will at least have some evidence.

[borisbeaver]

Why not send yourself some test mail, 1st, 2nd, recorded etc.

[BazzaS]

I am frankly surprised at some of the sexist "blame the victim" responses here:

.........

 

What else do you think is going on?

 

I haven’t seen any sexist responses. The only mention of sex/gender I can see is yours, made after the posts you are “frankly surprised” at.

If you kick off at those trying to help you, it’ll just put others off helping.

 

What else do I think is going on?

I don’t know for sure, but the sort of person who turns on those trying to help them, and makes baseless accusations of sexism certainly opens up possibilities that wouldn’t be likely to happen to a more reasonable person!