Royal Mail has axed fines on letters delivered with ‘counterfeit’ stamps following outrage from recipients.
People around the country have been receiving £5 fines for letters sent to them with so-called fake stamps.
The issue is believed to have begun two years ago when Royal Mail introduced new stamps with barcodes which allow mail to be tracked and reduce the possibility of counterfeiting.
Stamps are considered a “secure print item”, making it a crime to knowingly reuse or sell used or fake stamps.
The postal service faced huge backlash from those receiving the fines, which doubled from £2.50 to £5 last October.
Some say they bought the stamps from reputable sources and have been left mortified when friends and family ask the sender to pay the fine.
But such fines have now been suspended, with the change coming into effect today and an investigation underway by Royal Mail, the Telegraph has revealed.
The issue reportedly came after a switch to a new barcoded stamps system last July led to a spate of customers being issued with stamp fines.
There was speculation that the issue may have been Royal Mail’s sorting machines, with an anonymous postal worker in Kent saying this or an error at the stamp manufacturers was likely the case.
The firm, which is regulated by Ofcom, said its processes for detecting fake stamps “are secure” and that all stamps marked counterfeit are verified by a member of staff.
Despite this claim, a senior executive admitted to the Telegraph that its machines were not always able to scan new barcodes correctly.
They said machines used to scan barcodes were “overly sensitive” and were wrongly flagging genuine stamps as being potentially fraudulent.
