A former postmaster has claimed the Post Office demanded he pay back tens of thousands of pounds stolen during an armed robbery.
Mark Kelly told how he was the victim of two armed robberies while running a post office in the early 2000s, and on both occasions he was told he had to pay back some of the money taken.
Kelly, who runs Brondeg Post Office in Swansea, is one of 16 deputy postmasters in the BBC investigation who were told to repay money stolen after burglaries and armed robberies at their post offices.
He told Newsnight that the first armed robbery took place in November 2002 and saw £52,000 stolen: “Five armed robbers came in with a shotgun, shot at the counter and threw a rock at the counter. “We had to move our body and head away from the panic button because we were heading straight for it.” We went to the back of the house and called 999.
“About a month later the Post Office told us we were responsible for £26,000 of the £46,000 stolen from the office. They said as we had not pressed the panic button this would have triggered the alarm. I told the dentist across the road that there had been a robbery taking place at the time.”
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“About a month later the Post Office told us we were responsible for £26,000 of the £46,000 stolen from the office.”
Former Deputy Postmaster Mark Kelly explains @vicderbyshire How the Post Office treated him after he was robbed. #newsnight pic.twitter.com/LFNd1x7NUD
– BBC Newsnight (@BBCNewsnight) January 25, 2024
Kelly, who was also involved in the Horizon scandal, wrote to the Post Office, saying that one of them came and tried to stand still while rocks were thrown at them, forcing them to give up. “I always had the impression that if you committed an armed robbery, give them the money because it can be replaced with something else. Don’t fight,” she said. “But after that it changed our situation.”
He said when a second robbery occurred the following year while his wife was working, they were again told they would have to pay £2,000 of the £10,000 taken. He said the Post Office had claimed that his wife had a child hiding in the Post Office, which could have prevented the crime from being committed, and should also have pointed out that there was a lot of money on the premises.
Patrick Green KC, who represents sub-postmasters in their fight to get compensation from the post office, said the situation was “fairly typical” and that they were trying to make people believe they had to pay their money back. In addition to being innocent, he is trying to get the money back on “very fraudulent grounds.”
He said: “It is absurd to suggest that a postman’s assistant should point out an eight-year-old boy hiding in a shop to prevent money being stolen.”
The Post Office told the broadcaster it had significantly increased its support to victims, saying: “Every time there is a crime incident, we learn from it to help improve the security of all postmasters on our network.”
When asked whether he should repay the money, Kelly said that when his Post Office was closed due to the Horizon scandal, the amount from the second robbery was applied to his losses, which were eventually postponed due to a different problem.
Yahoo News UK has contacted the Post Office for comment.
‘New Post Office cover-up allegations’
Kelly’s comments come as the Post Office faces fresh questions over alleged cover-ups during the Horizon scandal.
On Friday, one of the campaigners fighting for justice described the Post Office’s secret decision to sack independent forensic accountants who found errors in IT systems as “disgusting”. Former assistant manager Jo Hamilton said the move, revealed in documents seen by the BBC, was akin to “knocking over the board when losing” a game of Monopoly.
The decision was revealed within minutes of an April 2014 meeting of a Post Office board subcommittee called Project Sparrow, which the broadcaster said was with the Government’s full knowledge.
The BBC said minutes of the April 9, 2014 meeting showed that the subcommittee asked a firm called Second Sight to produce a document on independent forensic accountants. The subcommittee also asked for “options to support them or reduce their role.”
A Post Office spokesman said: “It is inappropriate for the Post Office to comment on allegations made outside the investigation, which is its duty to consider all evidence and independently reach conclusions about the matters it examines.” A spokesman for the Prime Minister said No 10 “takes these reports extremely seriously.” He said he took it.