Birth­day cards ripped open by cal­lous thief

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.the-gazette.co.uk/news/2623 ... -mail-hub/



A THIEF has admit­ted break­ing into a Royal Mail depot and steal­ing more than 20 let­ters and par­cels.
Andrew Mack, 40, gained entry to the build­ing in Under­wood Road, Pais­ley, on July 13, 2024.

He then rum­maged through mail as he looked for cash con­tained in birth­day cards.

Mack tampered with 26 par­cels and let­ters, with a fur­ther 20 sus­pec­ted of being tampered with.

Pro­cur­ator fiscal depute Decla O’Con­nor told Pais­ley Sher­iff Court: “Between 6am and 7am on Sat­urday, July 13, 2024, Kim­ber­ley Suth­er­land and James Walker were work­ing within the build­ing.

“At this time, the accused entered Ms Suth­er­land’s office unan­nounced.

“Ms Suth­er­land was con­fused

as to how the accused gained access to the office, due to her office being situ­ated within the staff ware­house, where no mem­bers of the pub­lic should have access.

“Due to the accused gain­ing unau­thor­ised access, he was imme­di­ately escor­ted out of the build­ing.

“A short time later, Mr Walker observed the accused loiter­ing at the front of the build­ing.

“Dur­ing the morn­ing of July 15, 2024, Mr Walker was pro­cessing deliv­er­ies and noticed that a shelf of par­cels was miss­ing.

“Shortly after, Mr Walker entered one of the staff cup­boards with another col­league and noticed that mul­tiple let­ters and par­cels had been ripped open.”

The court heard this was repor­ted and an internal invest­ig­a­tion was launched.

The Under­wood Road depot is the sort­ing office for all mail that is dis­trib­uted within Ren­frewshire.

Ms O’Con­nor added: “On July 16, 2024, Mr Walker noted the door to be insec­ure and dam­aged, like it had been forced open.

“There was dam­age to the Yale lock, which he knew had not been dam­aged in pre­vi­ous days. “Police were con­tac­ted.

“It was con­firmed by Mr Walker they had car­ried out an audit on let­ters and par­cels dam­aged within and con­firmed the fig­ure of 26 items had been tampered with and believed that another 20 could have been tampered with.

“Most of these items were let­ters and birth­day cards.

“Mr Walker believes the accused was search­ing for any money that may have been loc­ated within the cards. However, it could not be estab­lished if any con­tents were taken and what the mon­et­ary value amoun­ted to.”

Defence agent Paul Lynch asked for back­ground reports to be pre­pared.

Sher­iff Bruce Erroch KC adjourned sen­ten­cing for a crim­inal justice social work report.

Mack, of Inch­in­nan Road, Pais­ley, will return to court for sen­ten­cing later this month.