A postmaster who fixed the books to cover a shortfall of nearly £45,000 has avoided jail after the judge said a ‘glitch’ in Royal Mail’s computer system could have been to blame for the loss.
Scott Richard Darlington, 47, of Park Lane, Macclesfield, appeared at Chester Crown Court yesterday (Tuesday, February 22), to be sentenced for false accounting.
The court heard an audit investigation at the London Road post office in Alderley Edge revealed the shortage of nearly £45,000.
But in sentencing, Judge Roger Dutton said he could not take the actual amount into consideration because Royal Mail could not prove the shortfall.
He added that he was not prepared to launch an inquiry because the costs to the taxpayer were not justified.
He said: "If I was to launch an inquiry to that fact, in my judgement, the costs incurred would be highly disproportionate in the establishment of the truth, to which in my mind simply cannot be justified.
"There are issues relating to the Post Office computer system that I do not feel in the position to judge myself.
"I’m told there are other actions concerned at the moment involving Post Office employees which suggests money is going missing where in fact it’s simply a glitch in a computer."
Darlington pleaded guilty to five offences of false accounting over a six-month period and admitted he attempted to cover up discrepancies to avoid having to pay the £44,508.46 back out of his own pocket.
But he blamed the IT system for the deficit.
He was sentenced to three months in prison, suspended for 12 months, and 120 hours of unpaid work and ordered to pay costs of £410.10.
Counsel for prosecution Debra White told the court that Darlington had been a sub postmaster at Alderley Edge for four years.
She said: "He was subjected to an audit investigation on February 12, 2009.
"He disclosed to the auditors that when he began to count the cash there had been an accounting error.
"He said he didn’t inform anyone of the discrepancies because he was scared they would take it out of his wages."
Counsel for defence Simon Parry said the computer system used by the Post Office was not infallible, referring to a case in Guildford which has been postponed for six months for extensive investigations to be carried out.
He said: "There’s no way the Post Office can prove a shortfall.
"There is no way of saying whether its a genuine error or a fraudulent error.
"Once the shortfall was discovered there was an element of panic that he would have to pay it himself."
"Mr Darlington employed inappropriate problem solving skills and made an error of judgement."
He asked that Darlington be given full credit for a prompt guilty plea.
After the hearing, Marie Gray, external relations manager for the Royal Mail Group said: "We do not comment on individual personnel issues however, our Horizon IT system, which operates across the Post Office network, is extremely robust and successfully records millions of transactions each day and there is no evidence pointing to any fault with the technology."
