Postwoman sues Royal Mail for £50k after dog bit off her fingers when she put her hand through letterbox

“Reasonable care”: Clare Offord claims not enough was done to ensure her safety
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A postwoman whose fingers were bitten off by a dog as she put a card through a letterbox is suing the Royal Mail for £50,000.

Clare Offord, 41, had been in the job for five months when she lost chunks of two fingers on a route in Romford in February 2016.

The mother, from Essex, put her left hand through the letterbox to deliver a “missed parcel” card when she felt the dog bite.

She was rushed to hospital, but despite surgery has been left without parts of her ring and middle fingers.

Bringing a legal claim over the incident, Mrs Offord argues Royal Mail did not do enough to make sure she was safe on the route, which was not her normal round.

Royal Mail 's lawyers deny liability for the injuries
PA

However, Royal Mail lawyers deny liability for her injuries and dispute the £50,000 damages she is claiming.

“The claimant has lost the larger part of two fingers on her left hand,” Mrs Offord’s barrister Ben Rodgers told Central London county court. “Her fingers are not going to grow back.”

Mrs Offord, a part-time worker, was delivering on the route while covering for a colleague, who had earlier noticed the presence of an “aggressive” dog prone to biting and pulling post through the letterbox.

However this was not recorded on the “walk log” which had been unchanged since 2011, she claims.

“She was delivering a parcel. She rang the doorbell. The occupier did not answer the door,” Mrs Offord’s legal team said, in the written claim.

“The claimant, as she had been trained to, filled out a form P739 — ‘Something for you.’ She pushed the form through the letterbox. As she did so, the dog bit her, causing serious injury to her fingers.”

Mrs Offord says she had been trained never to leave an item hanging out of a letterbox, but had also not been issued with a plastic posting peg to avoid putting her fingers through the slot.

The court heard the animal’s owner later pleaded guilty to being the owner of a dog dangerously out of control causing injury, and was ordered by magistrates to pay £8,793 in fines, compensation and costs. The dog was also threatened with destruction if it was involved in any further incidents.

Mrs Offord argues that managers at the Romford sorting office had failed to take “reasonable care for the safety of their post-persons”, and says she has now been left with “cold intolerance” thanks to her injuries.

Royal Mail is defending the case, denying liability for Mrs Offord’s injuries and contesting the size of her claim.

Judge Caroline Wilkinson oversaw a preliminary hearing in the case which will come to a civil trial at a later date.

A Royal Mail spokesperson said: ‘We cannot comment on this individual case as it is ongoing. However, we welcomed the prosecution and conviction against the person in charge of the dog at the time of the attack.

‘Royal Mail treats all dog attacks on our postmen and women very seriously, and our first priority as an employer is to ensure the welfare and safety of our people who provide a valuable service to our customers. It is very distressing when one of our people is attacked by a dog while carrying out their job. We continue to appeal to dog owners and their families to take steps in order to reduce the numbers of attacks, particularly through letterboxes, at the door and in the garden.’

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