A businessman has been given a suspended jail sentence after he defrauded Royal Mail out of £11,000 by failing to pay for all the parcels he was sending customers.
Mohammed Shafique is the sole director of RS Clothing Ltd which trades on eBay selling clothing by mail order operating from a unit in Lockwood, Huddersfield.
Kenton Sargent prosecuting told Leeds Crown Court yesterday he entered into an arrangement with Royal Mail where he would weigh and the parcels sent out using a printed postage impression indicating the amount paid as an alternative to stamps.
He would then have a docket showing the correct proof of postage paid. He was given guidance in September last year to make sure he understood the system when there were concerns about his use of the system.
A further meeting was held on October 28 last year to clearly explain the system to him but on the very next day a schedule showed he defrauded the Mail using a duplicate docket for parcels sent the day before.
Mr Sargent said between that date and December 12 on a total of 16 occasions Shafique used a docket previously used saving himself £11,031.31 on parcels sent.
Claire Moran representing Shafique said he was remorseful for his actions and had already repaid £6,500. He had found the fraud easy to commit because stringent checks were not in place by Royal Mail.
Shafique, 23 of Holly Road, Thornton Lodge, who admitted obtaining services by dishonesty and asked for one offence to be taken into consideration was given eight weeks in prison suspended for 12 months with 200 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £500 costs.
Judge Penelope Belcher told him she had considered sending him to jail immediately but it was better for him to continue paying his debts.
She said the fraud involved him presenting documents which were legal on the first occasion but then on the second “representing a free ride for you” by exploiting the system.
The judge said she was not impressed by Shafique suggesting others were doing it so he did. “If that is the case I hope they too are caught and brought before the courts.”
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