Directors of Acton Mail Firm Jailed

Over 360,000 letters and parcels thrown into skips

Two men, who were the directors of an Acton based private mail firm, have been jailed in what has been described as the largest ever case of mail destruction.

Their firm had been contracted to deliver mail but to save costs they simply disposed of it in skips. Their firm had revenues that amounted to millions of pounds and Southwark Crown Court heard how much of it was spent on luxury homes and fast cars.

Inderpal Narula, 33, and Royston Heaton, 42, were given two year jail terms and banned from acting as company directors. Narula, from Burnham in Berkshire, was told to pay 500,000 pounds and Heaton, of Holton, Oxford 400,000 pounds in compensation within four months.

Among the letters that the firm discarded blood test results, doctors' letters of certification to work overseas and acceptance letters for university places. Material from Amnesty International was also not delivered.

Judge Andrew Goymer at Southwark Crown Court admitted that fraud was endemic in the private mail industry but said that offered no excuse for the two men and made prison inevitable.

November 24, 2005