Postman buried his head in the sand... and mail in undergrow

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Postman buried his head in the sand... and mail in undergrowth

http://www.thisisderbyshire.co.uk/news/ ... ticle.html

A POSTMAN whose job got too much for him "buried his head in the sand" and failed to deliver more than 6,000 items, a court heard.

Thomas Porter, 21, was suspended from his job when a bag of mail was found hidden in undergrowth in Asher Lane, Ripley, on March 31.

Royal Mail officials then checked Porter's car and found 2,016 items.

A further 230 items were found in a wheelie bin and more in his house, Southern Derbyshire magistrates heard.

Porter, of Needham Street, Codnor, admitted delaying the delivery of 2,838 postal packets and 2,940 items of unsolicited mail.

The court heard he had stopped delivering mail within two months of starting work as the job became too much.

Andrew Cash, prosecuting, said the items should have been posted between March 6 and 26. This prompted an investigation by Royal Mail, which had already received complaints about missing mail.

Mr Cash said: "He said the job had become too much and he buried his head in the sand."

Mr Cash said many of the items were unsolicited mail, which is sorted by postal workers on their rounds.

"Door-to-door items may be described pejoratively in this court but we all receive services and the Royal Mail is contracted to deliver them for local authorities and commercial operations," he said.

"The income the Royal Mail gets significantly subsidises the regular mail we all enjoy."

The case was adjourned for sentencing.

Kath Heap, chairman of Southern Derbyshire magistrates, said Porter could face a custodial sentence.

"We are looking at all sentences," she said.

The case comes just a week after a postman from Alfreton, who hoarded more than 1,000 packages and opened greeting cards, was spared jail.

A Royal Mail Inspector found 1,275 delayed packages and 34 opened items at the home of Paul Armstrong-Wells, 36.

The father-of-two from Everest Drive, Somercotes, was sentenced to 15 weeks in jail, suspended for two years at Derby Crown Court.

He was also ordered to pay £300 court costs, the £1,486 that Royal Mail paid for the investigation and £17 for junk mail he failed to deliver. He was told to do 60 hours of unpaid work.

A spokeswoman for Royal Mail said: "We have a zero tolerance approach to any dishonesty and that stance is shared by the overwhelming majority of postmen and women, who are honest and hardworking and who do all they can to protect the mail and deliver it safely.

"We will always seek to prosecute the tiny minority of people who abuse their position of trust.

"Royal Mail customers should be confident in our services and systems but, where we are alerted to problems, either through our own stringent checks or from information supplied by our customers, we take decisive action to investigate."

[NWpostie]

Help should be more available to nip this problem in the bud and nobody loses their jobs, this seem to be a common thing, some unable to cope and with nowhere to turn to so the end up hding their problems and the mail, causing us needless problems for our credibility and customer confidence.

[Phantom]

Purely down to bad management, crap training and newbies chucked in at the deepend who daren't speak up incase they lose they're job.

[Lounge Lizard]

Yes, I don't remember anything on the induction day along the lines of "If at any time you have any problems or are having difficulty coping with the job go and have a word with .... "

[mailsort6]

When a postman/woman fails to deliver the mail, they know that they will be prosecuted. Sometime it makes me wonder if some of these posties are suffering from stress or depression or some sort of mental illness because they know what the consquences are and they know that they will get caught. What is the problem do new posties need more training? Perhaps RM could compile a survey to see what each postman's/postwoman's view are because these incidents are happening too frequently