A group of fraudsters who posed as a mail delivery service for charities only to deliberately destroy 1.3 million letters have been sentenced to over 13 years imprisonment collectively.
Richard Badger, Mark Barclay, Katie Dixon and Christopher Horgan were sentenced on Friday (7 December) for their involvement in a "complex fraud" which involved securing mailing contracts from some of the UK's largest charities, by claiming to be cheaper than the Royal Mail.
Operating under the name 'Delta Data', the quartet was paid a total of £685,000 by the charities involved. They destroyed the equivalent to 175 Post Office cages of mail, more than 1.3 million mailings and letters, which was around half the mail they handled. The true cost in loss of potential donations to the charities is thought to be in the millions.
A spokesman for Wiltshire Police, which handled the investigation, said the charities involved were RSPCA, Sightsavers and the Tibet Relief Fund, with various printing and mailing services working with charities - CSDM/Quadriga, 4DM, St Ives Direct, MA Print Solutions and Consumer Leads Direct - also being affected. Collections took place in 2011 and it is suspected also the year before, he advised.
The RSPCA congratulated the police for successfully prosecuting the fraudsters: "As soon as we suspected fraudulent action we referred the matter to the police," said a spokeswoman. "It is extremely concerning that fraudsters would target anyone, let alone a charity, in such a way. We are very pleased that the police have done such an excellent job and brought these people to justice."
Sentencing
Badger, 43, was sentenced to four years imprisonment for theft and money laundering. Barclay, 38, was sentenced to three years and one month for running a fraudulent business and money laundering and a further four months on drugs possession and two months for firearm possession. Dixon, 27, was given a suspended sentence of two years imprisonment and 150 hours of unpaid work for running a fraudulent business and money laundering. And Horgan, 48, was sentenced to three years imprisonment for money laundering. All are also banned from being a company director for seven years.
Detective inspector Mike Rees, head of the Dedicated Crime Team, said: "This was a complex fraud which targeted organisations that rely on the generosity of members of the public through the mail they send out.
"These fraudsters led extravagant lifestyles off the back of ripping off these charities ... This was a callous crime born out of pure greed and [Friday's] sentence reflects the seriousness of these crimes."
The sentences coincide with the national rollout of Action Fraud. The launch now means that all incidents of fraud and financially-motivated cyber crime in the UK should be reported to Action Fraud, run by the National Fraud Authority, rather than to local police forces.
