![]() Rita Ora flashes her taut abs in a bra top as she shares first update since arriving back in Australia with husband Taika Waititi He had previously admitted adapting, supplying and possessing articles for fraud and money laundering. Rought, 57, from Birmingham, was given an 18-month suspended jail sentence, and ordered to do 85 hours of unpaid work. 'It's been terrible and it almost made me an alcoholic, but I'm all right now. 'I lost my mum and my dad and walked out of my job as a dental technician. 'It was a bit of a mad time in my life,' he added. Rought said the long wait to be sentenced had taken a heavy toll. Until that point, the father of two claimed he initially did not realise the scheme was illegal. 'Anyone would've thought I'd stolen the Crown Jewels,' he said. He did not employ anyone else,' he said.Īfter he pleaded guilty in March, Rought told of the moment eight police officers stormed the garden shed where he washed the stamps. He added it was not a sophisticated endeavour. ![]() James Bruce, for Rought, said he was arrested in August 2016 and the matter had been hanging over his head since then. Katie Rafter, for Mrs Harrison, said she had 'turned a blind eye to her husband's activities' but must have had suspicions about them. You made considerable gain from these offences.' ![]() The fraud took place over a period just short of nine years. Passing sentence, Recorder Naomi Ellenbogen QC told Mr Harrison: 'It is clear this was a calculated business activity, the proceeds of which were your prime income. Royal Mail franking is a pre-paid postage option where a franking mark is printed directly onto the envelope or a label for parcels. Now in the UK Royal Mail uses the term to describe its in-house pre-paid postage solution. It became a postage term because Benjamin Franklin was an early United States postmaster general and a satirist once coined the phrase 'Franklin privilege' to refer to free congressional mail. In the USA, the first postage stamp was introduced in 1847 and known as the Five cent Franklin (SC-1).įranking is derived from the Latin word 'francus', which means free. It can refer to the application of a postage stamp or a mark made by a franking machine to indicate 'postage paid' or pre-paid postage.įranking machines also stamp 'postage due' impressions on letters to indicate there were insufficient funds to successfully deliver the letter.īefore the first ever postage stamps were introduced in Britain in 1840, franking was the only system to indicate whether post had been paid for. The term 'franking' refers to any markings applied to letters, packages or other mail that indicates a sufficient fee has been paid for it to be delivered at the class stated. He had previously admitted money laundering and another charge of supplying articles for fraud.Īfter recruiting his wife to take part in the scam, she was convicted of money laundering and given a two-year suspended prison sentence with 150 hours unpaid work. Mr Harrison was today jailed for four years at Birmingham Crown Court after being convicted of adapting, supplying and possessing articles for fraud. Just over £215,000 of the money went into the Harrisons' joint account, while his accomplice Graham Rought pocketed £43,000, the court was told. Mr Harrison was involved in the sale of around 700,000 stamps which resulted in Royal Mail losing £421,000, Birmingham Crown Court heard. He and his wife Samantha, 44, used the proceeds of the elaborate fraud to pay for luxury holidays and a BMW with personalised number plates. Paul Harrison, 52, defrauded Royal Mail out of more than £400,000 by removing the stamps' frank marks so they could be passed off as new to people online. A married couple whose lavish lifestyle was funded by washing 700,00 used stamps and selling them as new on eBay and Amazon have been convicted of fraud.
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