TNT do it again - this time MP involved

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Controversial delivery firm TNT Post faces an official investigation after a London MP discovered hundreds of letters, including official benefits documents and banking details, dumped in a river.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has been called in after Hendon MP Matthew Offord found a large sack of TNT post at the bottom of the Silk Stream river in Colindale.

The bulk of the mail was confidential benefits information sent from Barnet Council to residents, as well as statements from Barclays Bank.

The find comes after it emerged that polling cards for next month’s European and local elections delivered by TNT Post had been dumped on bins and delivered to the wrong addresses in Barnet, one of London’s biggest boroughs.

“I was shocked with what I pulled out the river,” Mr Offord said. “We’d been there a while, and got quite a few tires, mattresses, and carpets, when I pulled out a black bag. When we were packing up the rubbish, the bag broke open, and I realised it was full of TNT mail, including information about how much households were to receive in benefits for the current tax year, and a lot of Barclays mail including an online banking card.

“There were at least a couple of hundred letters, all with TNT white stickers.”

Mr Offord contacted Barnet Council, and handed the bag into the Town Hall. “They said it was a data leak and they are contacting the data commissioner,” the MP said. “There are huge concerns with TNT as a postal operator. There may have been a court summons or bills to be paid in that sack, and someone could end up with serious problems. It’s genuinely shocking.”

TNT’s orange-clad delivery staff are paid according to how quick they are — an incentive to throw away mail. Letters have previously been found dumped in undergrowth next to the Welsh Harp reservoir in Brent.

Shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna called on the industry watchdog Ofcom to investigate. “Local residents will be shocked and dismayed at further reports of shoddy service from the private postal provider,” he said. “The postal regulator Ofcom will want to look closely at these incidents.”

TNT Post began delivering “final mile” post in west London in April 2012. It has contracts with 11 London councils.

Barnet Council said: “There does appear to be a data breach. The relationship between TNT and the Royal Mail is a complicated one and we are trying to work out exactly who is responsible.”

A TNT spokesman said: “We have identified the person responsible for this disgraceful action. We have carried out an investigation which has resulted in the person being dismissed.”