{"id":103495,"date":"2025-05-15T12:26:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T12:26:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/103495\/"},"modified":"2025-05-15T12:26:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T12:26:11","slug":"what-its-like-to-work-in-edinburghs-most-notorious-estate-for-more-than-30-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/103495\/","title":{"rendered":"What it’s like to work in Edinburgh’s most notorious estate for more than 30 years"},"content":{"rendered":"

A postmaster<\/a> who has worked at the heart of one of Edinburgh\u2019s most notorious schemes for the past 30 years has opened up on his career.<\/p>\n

Riaz Hussein took on the business at the foot of Martello Court in Muirhouse in 1991 after seeing an advert in the local newspaper while working as a bus driver.<\/p>\n

The 67-year-old, who is known by many as ‘Uncle Riaz’, says he feels the area has changed massively in the past three decades – and mostly for the better.<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/b> Edinburgh gangster series uncovered life in one of city’s roughest schemes<\/a><\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/b> McDonald’s workers ‘ignore’ drive-thru customers who use ‘common greeting’<\/a><\/p>\n

But despite building long lasting relationships, his family have also faced difficult moments, from the Horizon scandal to an armed robber<\/a> and countless shoplifters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a deprived area,\u201d he said. \u201cIt is completely different to what it is now, the area is no different to a Ravelston or Gamekeepers Road today, it is quite posh.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOne day I joked everything had been thrown off Martello Court bar the kitchen sink – and then the next day we had a kitchen sink land outside the shop. There were definitely more trouble makers and drug takers around and I could not leave my family alone in the shop but it is much better now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Perhaps the scariest encounter for his family in the store occurred when Riaz\u2019s son, Arfan, opened up with his wife around a decade ago. Fifteen minutes after lifting the shutter, Irfan found himself staring down the barrel of a gun as a man with a balaclava demanded cash.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing I thought was someone was taking the p**s and I said that to him,\u201d Arfan said. \u201cIt was about 7.15am and he said \u2018it’s a hold up\u2019 while pointing a rifle at my face.<\/p>\n

\"Riaz<\/p>\n

Riaz with his son Irfan.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him the Post Office was shut and we have no cash as we had just opened up. So he demanded the fags, waving the rifle about, and I just kept thinking is this real or not?<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time I did taekwondo and had a second degree black belt so I thought I would kick the s**t out of him. My wife told me just to hand over the cigarettes but I pressed the panic button and he shouted at me \u2018you\u2019re a dead man.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cFunny thing is I was not scared of the gun but more the balaclava with the eye holes, I\u2019d never seen anything like it before. He started running but I chased him into one of the buildings where the police caught him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wasn’t the sharpest as before he came in he had a fag outside which the police were able to gather and get his DNA from.\u201d<\/p>\n

Riaz’s greatest stress came during the Horizon scandal where he claimed he had to pay tens of thousands of pounds to plug computer glitches. He has since been reimbursed through the compensation scheme but he said the full amount he paid out will never be recouped due to the historic nature of the scandal leading to him losing paperwork over the years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I first started in retail at age 16, it was all paperwork and a lot more work for everyone with not a lot of mistakes,\u201d Riaz continued. \u201cWhen the computers came in though I had real issues with Horizon.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the time I just paid the shortages myself as I was scared I would go to prison. If you were short, you were told you were out the door.<\/p>\n

\"Riaz<\/p>\n

Riaz and his family have ran the shop for over 30 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom 2000-2015 I covered tens of thousands of pounds. I\u2019ve been reimbursed for some but potentially not the full amount as I lost a lot of paperwork from that period.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you phoned up to say you were short they would ask why you were phoning them. The Mr Bates TV show was very true, I was \u00a326,000 down at one stage and I could not figure it out, I phoned up my friend who was the Branch Secretary in Davidson Mains, and we spent two hours trying to find the issue but we did not understand what had happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI gradually had to pay it back. It did feel like everyone had the same problems, I even lost a friend to suicide over it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI should never have paid but at the time I thought I could not fight the big boys.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Riaz said although they have also had to deal with the odd shoplifter over the years, they have been welcomed by the community. He described his customers and previous staff members as \u2018lovely\u2019 and is proud to work in the area.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot has changed, there used to be queues for 200 yards down the street with people using the Post Office but it is all online now,\u201d he said. \u201cNo one really uses the service anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we have built up the business, we used to only sell papers and convenience items but we have a store and takeaway, 2Bros, now as well. We were very welcome the first day we arrived as we were needed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve seen people here grow up, parents, grandparents and children, some even call me uncle Riaz. This is a real community, I should be retired by now but I don\u2019t want to stop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe customers are so sweet and police, I\u2019m very happy to have spent the past 34 years here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A postmaster who has worked at the heart of one of Edinburgh\u2019s most notorious schemes for the past…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":103496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,4884,9456,47706,39002,47707,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-103495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-horizon","12":"tag-martello-court","13":"tag-post-office","14":"tag-riaz-hussein","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114511844750549030","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=103495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/103495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/103496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=103495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=103495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=103495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}