Hampshire police probe mystery of missing Evri parcels

Police are investigating the disappearance of 89 Evri parcels in parts of Hampshire.

The deliveries reportedly went missing between 31 August and 19 September in the north of the county, detectives said.

One customer told the BBC she and several neighbours were affected and all of them had received the same photo from Evri to show the delivery had taken place.

In a statement, the firm apologised and said it would not tolerate fraud.

Wedding celebrant Miranda Ash said two of her parcels had not arrived, despite Evri sending photographic evidence to the contrary.

One picture showed two parcels on her doorstep that were in fact not for her, while the other showed a package in the back seat of a car, she said.

Her experience was not unique in her community, she said.

“Everyone’s been posting pictures saying ‘Has anyone seen my package’ or ‘I’ve found it’,” she said.

“It’s kind of the in-joke in the village at the moment.”

In a different area, Ben Hollyer said his community Facebook page had seen a “huge influx” of messages about lost packages.

“My wife and I went on a bit of a mission to find the parcels and figure out where they were,” he said.

“We did eventually find one place where some photos were taken down a farm lane, but no parcels.”

A third customer, Becky Sarson-Hoad, said Evri sent a photo of her package next to an unidentifiable concrete wall.

She became suspicious when the exact same photo was posted online by other customers with missing deliveries.

The BBC is unable to name the three areas involved for legal reasons.

In a statement, Evri said: “Our ambition is that every customer’s experience is a positive one and we apologise to anyone affected by this.

“We have a zero tolerance policy towards fraudulent behaviour, and anyone found acting in this way will be removed.

“Our people work incredibly hard to deliver almost 900 million parcels each year and the overwhelming majority of our 28,000 couriers are highly regarded by customers with an average star rating of 4.6 out of 5 this year.”