AN ARTIST showed his friend the decency of postal staff by sticking a stamp on a £5 note and posting it to him.

After seeing a Despatches documentary on Channel 4 on April 29 about dishonesty in the Post Office, 23-year-old town planner Matt Pell's cynical view on life was reaffirmed.

However, his lifelong friend Fred Higginson, 23, of Princes Rise, Lewisham, was keen to change his negative outlook.

On June 1, Fred stuck a first-class stamp and address onto a £5 note he owed Mr Pell and posted it at a postbox in Lewisham. Three days later it arrived at Mr Pell's Hackney home.

Mr Higginson said: "I'm glad it made it as I don't have £5 to waste but what was worth more to me was to show Matt, who has become increasingly cynical over the years, people can be honest and decent."

Ever the cynic, Mr Pell believes something other than honesty stopped the note from being pocketed.

He said: "I think people didn't take it because they were scared to. They probably thought someone would see them if they pocketed it."

According to Royal Mail, which delivers 82 million items daily, the £5 note could have passed under the eyes of hundreds of postal staff as it made its journey.

A Royal Mail spokesman said: "Royal Mail strongly advises customers never to send cash through the post. One of the reasons being it could get damaged."

The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents 300,000 workers in the communications industry, says the experiment shows the majority of postal staff are honest.

CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward said: "I am sure this rather bizarre experiment reflects the true honesty of postmen and women far better than Channel 4 managed to do."

However, Channel 4 defended its documentary.

A spokesman said: "Our film was not trying to imply all postal workers are dishonest but it did contain compelling evidence of theft by some postal workers."



Route of the fiver
After being collected by a driver at the Lewisham Hill post box, the mail is taken to a sorting office in Nine Elms, London At the Nine Elms sorting office the post is sorted into first and second-class post on a conveyor belt used by hundreds of staff At the same office it is then sorted into the area of its destination before being delivered by van to the local delivery office From Hackney delivery office mail is sorted into posties' individual rounds before being delivered to its destination address.