Postman jailed for dumping mail
Nov 6 2008 WalesOnline
A postman who dumped thousands of parcels and letters in woods near his home during his first four weeks in the job was today jailed for nine months.
Adam Stuart, 22, also opened 67 packages and kept Tesco Clubcard vouchers.
Items missing from the post that Stuart, of Top Road, Trefriw, North Wales, was due to deliver, also included two nine carat gold rings, CDs and parts for a scooter.
The items Stuart stole were worth £478, Caernarfon Crown Court heard.
Sentencing Stuart, Judge John Rogers QC said: “For about four weeks in January and February this year whilst you were employed as a postman you persistently dumped letters and other postal packets, and from 67 of those you stole items.
“This was a gross breach of trust.
“You have caused inconvenience and possibly damage to many members of the public.”
An investigation by Royal Mail was launched when a colleague noticed that she had not received a package due to be delivered to her address, the court was told.
During a search of Stuart’s van on February 25, 2,465 packages were found, 588 were to be delivered that day, the rest were delayed orders.
The investigation also discovered that a forestry worker found 3,130 packets dumped in woods near to Stuart’s home on May 9.
Sion ap Mihangel, prosecuting, told the court that Stuart said he “could not be bothered” to deliver the post and had “lost interest” in the job because he claimed he had not been paid properly when he was questioned about the dumped items.
Stuart had first been employed on a casual basis in December 2007 in the sorting office and had been based at the delivery offices in Deeside before being moved temporarily to the Colwyn Bay area, the court heard.
Gordon Hennell, defending, told the court that Stuart had a difficulty “coping” with the job of delivering post.
During mitigation, Mr Hennell asked the court for a suspended sentence due to the earlier guilty plea, previous good character and Stuart’s dyspraxia – a condition affecting voluntary movement.
He said: “This is a young man who exhibited the signs of that condition early on in his life.”
Mr Hennell said that Stuart should have gone to his supervisors to explain the problems with the new deliveries and he regretted not taking any action.
But Judge Rogers told Stuart, who stared straight ahead when the sentence was announced, that he would go to jail.
Judge Rogers sentenced Stuart to three nine-month terms to run at the same time for the three counts on the indictment that included charges of theft and delaying post.
