Fake hours scam: Now Royal Mail to probe our claims

Royal Mail is investigating claims that its drivers are logging fraudulent overtime claims after The Mail on Sunday raised the alarm. 

We have handed the FTSE100 giant a number of cases of so-called ‘fake hours’ claims being submitted across the country. 

Royal Mail is now probing allegations that four HGV drivers at its vast national distribution centre in Crick, Northamptonshire, routinely manipulated their hours. 

It is investigating claims of similar practices at three other offices. 

Sources said the HGV drivers at Crick regularly sign up for lengthy, lucrative overtime shifts at weekends that involve driving long distances as far as Newcastle and Preston. The drivers allegedly then take on lighter duties, including administration work, leaving after just a few hours. Agency staff are then tasked with taking on the long drives instead, it is claimed. 

A source said the practice had enabled the drivers to more than double their annual salaries. One has allegedly been manipulating his hours for nearly two decades. 

The source added: ‘We see and work with this every day of the week. It’s unfair and makes me sick to the core.’ 

Royal Mail said it is reviewing information provided by the MoS, adding: ‘If we find evidence of inaccurate payment of overtime, we will take appropriate action’. 

The MoS revealed last month that workers at Royal Mail’s office in Llanelli had gone on strike after an employee was fired when he tried to blow the whistle on a fake hours scam, which can artificially boost delivery office budgets. The employee has since been reinstated. 

Employees at other Royal Mail offices have since told this newspaper that the practice is common within its 140,000-strong workforce. One postman, based in the North East, said logging overtime which was paid before it was worked was so routine it was not seen as fraudulent. 

Chief executive Simon Thompson is trying to modernise the company in the face of increasing competition, including from Amazon. 

Have you witnessed fake hours being logged at Royal Mail? Email: alex.lawson@mailonsunday.co.uk