Postie avoids a jail term for theft by skin of his teeth

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A POSTMAN avoided jail “by the skin of his teeth” after he admitted stealing more than 60 letters.

Terry Jones, 43, of Finchley Road, Southend, was charged with stealing 64 letters while working for the Royal Mail.

He pleaded guilty to the offences at an earlier hearing after Post Office investigators spotted him putting post in his bag at the sorting office, which was not for his round.

Hugh Cauthery, prosecuting, said surveillance on Jones was carried out and investigators saw him putting a high proportion of coloured cards into his mailbag.

He said: “A search of the delivery pouch found 54 packets which were not due to be delivered by the defendant at all.

“A search of his home address revealed a number of items including ten opened cards which appeared to be greetings cards.”

Mr Cauthery added Marks & Spencer, HMV and WHSmith gift cards were also found in Jones’s possession.

Rebecca Hurst, mitigating, said Jones was remorseful for his actions and the offences were committed because of his financial situation.

She said: “When he did take money it was when a bill came in.”

Chairman of the magistrates, Julia Tetley, said: “These two offences of theft of mail are very serious indeed and do warrant a custodial sentence.

“There is a high degree of trust placed in postal workers and you did plan it because you picked up coloured cards. Although, the amounts of money were not very much, there was a huge number of victims and many were children.

“You missed going to prison by the skin of your teeth.”

Jones pleaded guilty to stealing ten packets and their contents with unknown value between October 25 and November 3, and stealing 54 packets of unknown value on November 3.

He was sentenced to three months in prison, suspended for 12 months, for both offences, to run concurrently. He was also ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and pay £200 costs.