Royal Mail fined 158,000 people for ‘fake’ stamps before finally pausing penalties

Royal Mail disclosed the total number of penalties issued after Labour MP Liam Byrne, who is chairman of the Business and Trade Committee, wrote to the firm’s new chief executive Emma Gilthorpe demanding answers in light of the public concern.

However in his response to the Committee, acting chief executive Martin Seidenberg defended the use of surcharges and said Royal Mail “was absolutely committed to ensuring that customers can buy and use stamps with confidence”.

“I know that customers need certainty that the stamps they purchase, and use, are genuine, and that concerns have been expressed about the surcharging of items posted using counterfeit stamps,” the letter said.

“Surcharging provides an important deterrent and is used by postal authorities in many countries. It is vital that Royal Mail and the UK are seen not to tolerate counterfeiters who mass produce, and illegally profit from, these illegitimate stamps.”

Mr Seidenberg added that Royal Mail continues to “work with law enforcement agencies to disrupt the manufacture and wholesale distribution of counterfeit stamps both in and outside the UK”.

However, none of the four major Chinese suppliers identified by The Telegraph at the beginning of April offering to print up to one million counterfeit stamps per week for as little as 4p have had their listings taken down, despite this newspaper sharing its findings with Border Force.

Mr Seidenberg wrote that while it had “good relationships” with Border Force, the National Crime Agency, Trading Standards agencies and local police forces, these groups had “many competing priorities”. He called on the Government to allocate more funding for clamping down on counterfeit stamps.

“We would, of course, welcome any additional resource that could be directed to help spot counterfeit stamps entering the UK, and to help us tackle the wholesale distribution of these stamps that only profit criminals,” he said.

Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: “The question really is what is Royal Mail doing about these counterfeit stamps that are coming from China, they need to shut it all down. They are the ones that need to oversee their own sale of the stamps so they need to make it very clear to anyone sending over stamps [that] they will be prosecuted.

“Border Force and Royal Mail should get their act together and sort this out. They should have those sites taken down and prosecute anybody involved in the chain of the stamps.”

The Telegraph first reported in August that it had seen 40 instances of customers claiming that stamps bought from Post Offices or the Royal Mail website had been flagged as counterfeit.

The price of a first class stamp in Britain has doubled since March 2019 when it was just 67p. Since then, there have been seven price rises, culminating in last month’s rise to £1.35 for a first class stamp and 85p for a second class stamp.