Postman spared jail over undelivered parcels
A CROOKED postie has escaped jail after he hoarded more than 50,000 parcels in his home.
John Samuel Richardson, 41, of Union Hall Road, Lemington, Newcastle, stashed thousands of the deliveries in his home over a four-year period.
The father-of-four was suspended from his role at the West Delivery Office in Newcastle after 23 years as a postman
for Royal Mail.An investigation was launched on June 10 when four contracts, which had been due for delivery before the end of May, were found in his office.
Richardson had signed to say the deliveries had been made so he would receive payment.
When investigators searched his home and car, they uncovered a total of 52,096 packets which had not been delivered spanning back to March 2006. Black rubbish bags were found in Richardson’s backyard containing 46,399 of the packets, but Richardson denied he was going to throw them out.
Now he has pleaded guilty at Newcastle Magistrates’ Court to two counts of intentionally delaying door-to-door parcels.
He told investigators he had taken them home because he had been unable to deal with the load and no-one had helped him.
He admitted being paid for some of the deliveries and said he was aware he was not meant to submit a claim when he had not yet delivered them.
He did not claim for all undelivered items. Paul Heron, prosecuting, said: “Mr Richardson said he regretted his actions and was willing to pay back the money.
“He said it all got on top of him.”
The cost of the Royal Mail investigation into Richardson’s actions came to £1,144.
John Wesencraft, defending, said: “This is a very sad case. He is a man who has a history of depression. He was off ill in 2003, and in 2006 things were getting on top of him again.
“He asked for help and he did not get it. Postmen are not obliged to make these extra deliveries, these are not the normal post. It is what you and I would call junk mail.”
Chair of the Bench Susan Clark said: “It’s a breach of trust for your employer that you worked for, for 23 years, and breach of trust over a very long period of time and we could send you to prison today.”
Richardson was given a 12-month community order for 200 hours of unpaid work.
He was also ordered to pay compensation costs of £42.78 and £100 towards the costs of proceedings.
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....explains a lot.
