"That doesn't make sense" ...
Surely somebody in the Post Office should have realised that the allegations just didn't make sense. You may get one or two "bad apples", but 550+?
Perhaps the corporate line of "they're all thieves" was easier to believe, (and far less career-limiting), than their own fallibility.
A few years ago, somebody on the accounting side of a courier company decided to try and establish how fuel-efficient their vehicle fleet was.
The records from the company's fuel pumps were matched against vehicle mileage and when the results were examined it turned out that several vehicles from one depot had significantly poorer fuel efficiency.
Somebody high up in the company decided that the only possible explanation was that the depot's drivers were syphoning fuel from the company vehicles for their own use. A list of the people responsible was compiled and legal proceedings prepared, but when the Depot Manager* was notified she refused to believe the allegations and insisted on having the fuel pumps tested.
One pump was found to be dispensing only about 70% of the recorded fuel. The legal action stopped instantly and the allegations vanished without trace.
As she put it; "I could believe that one or two drivers were on the fiddle, but two dozen? That just didn't make sense."
* A cousin of mine.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
