167.Sections 108, 109 and 110 are intended to prevent delays in court cases arising from hearsay arguments.
168.Section 108 enables official marks of universal service providers in connection with the provision of the universal service or a foreign administration to be sufficient proof of the amount of postage due on a postal packet. It allows in legal proceedings for the recovery of postage or other sums due in respect of postal packets that the production of the packet with a universal service provider’s or a foreign administration’s stamp or endorsement on it is sufficient proof that the packet has been refused or rejected, is unclaimed or cannot be delivered for any other reason. It also states that a certificate of a universal service provider is sufficient proof that any mark, stamp or endorsement has been made by that universal service provider unless the contrary is shown. The section makes it clear that, in any legal proceedings, the person from whom a postal packet seems to have come will, unless the contrary is shown, be taken to be the sender of the packet.
169.Section 109 enables, on prosecution of an offence under the Act, evidence that an article is in the course of transmission by post or has been accepted by a postal operator for transmission by post will be sufficient proof that it is a postal packet. This applies to any offence in the Act. Subsections (2) and (3) apply certain provisions of the Theft Act to offences under sections 83 and 84 of the Postal Services Act.
170.Section 110 enables certification by a universal service provider to be sufficient proof, unless the contrary is shown, that any box or receptacle was provided by the provider for receiving and onward transmission of postal packets in connection with the provision of a universal postal service.
171.These sections replace sections 19, 72 and 78 of the Post Office Act 1953.
Commentary on Sections Part VII Miscellaneous and Supplementary Sections 108/109/110: Evidential provisions