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A senior Royal Mail executive has accused the Border Force of failing to prevent Britain from being flooded by fake Chinese stamps.
They claim the Government is not doing enough to clampdown on the import of forgeries that are leading to customers being slapped with £5 penalties.
On Thursday senior MPs called for Chinese officials to face ministers – although the nation has dismissed claims about the counterfeit stamps as “baseless”.
David Gold, director of external affairs and policy at Royal Mail, in an interview with the Telegraph, said: “One of the things which is obvious is if these stamps are coming in from abroad, people’s obvious question will be ‘shouldn’t Border Force just be stopping them?’
“[I would ask] what the Government is doing to put pressure on law enforcement to stop these items coming into the country in the first place.”
Royal Mail has recently introduced new barcoded stamps to help cover £19 million a year it said it was losing to counterfeits.
But the allegedly Chinese counterfeit stamps are said to be so convincing that small businesses – who don’t have to buy direct from Royal Mail – are being duped into buying them.
Gold says the fake stamps are part of a “losing battle” as Royal Mail teams work with small businesses to find out where they acquired counterfeits from.
Alicia Kearns, chairman of the foreign affairs committee, has now demanded China launches an investigation into factories “brazenly” producing fake stamps.
She said: “It is incumbent upon the Chinese state to now crack down on these companies who are openly supporting illicit trade in stamps, investigate printing facilities and expose those funding them.
“There is evidently a need for enhanced measures to safeguard postal service integrity, enhanced intelligence sharing, and increased efforts to mitigate potential economic and security risks associated with counterfeit postage operations linked to China.”
A Home Office spokesman said: “We do not tolerate the sale of illegal products and Border Force will take concerted action to stop them crossing our borders by detecting and seizing harmful goods and supporting law enforcement to dismantle the criminal gangs that attempt to smuggle them in.
“Border Force works closely with law enforcement partners to share intelligence and have a strong track record in targeting illicit commodities, and we continue to ensure all goods brought into the UK by passengers are appropriately declared and abide by customs and excise rules.”
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