A Workington man has taken on the Royal Mail and won.
Keith Wallace, a Workington stamp dealer, began to have mail returned to him because the stamps he had used were deemed ‘counterfeit’ – despite him knowing this was not the case.
Repeated efforts to talk to Royal Mail failed, he said, and even Workington MP Mark Jenkinson, got stymied by red tape.
Mr Wallace decided to sue the Royal Mail Group and was due to face them in court tomorrow, Friday, January 26. It was ordered to bring an independent stamp expert to testify.
But this afternoon, he was told that the company would settle out of court. He will receive compensation and Royal Mail will pay his costs.
He said: “I have been battling for the best part of three years. Three years ago I started getting my mail returned and bear in mind I send the best part of 30 letters a day with my online business so as you can imagine the Royal Mail almost ruined my business over a two-month period.
“It actually got to the point where every letter I sent was returned with a fine of £2.50 on each one. I have been dealing in stamps and related ephemera for over 40 years and knew they were not counterfeit, so I decided to take them on.
“I knew my stamps were genuine from day one. When you buy stamp collections, there’s always modern stamps in there and they don’t have any other value than face value. So I decided to use them. That’s when they decided they were counterfeit.”
After receiving the news, Mr Wallace said: “I am delighted to report that the Royal Mail have instructed their lawyers to inform me that they wish to settle out of court and have offered my claim in full plus additional costs.
“I have won my case and I have been vindicated. I knew from day one that my stamps were genuine, there was never a doubt, not for a moment and that is why I was determined to push this to its final conclusion.
“It was certainly a war of nerves but I held out.”
