Mail worker Angela Doran admits stealing almost £45,000

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A former postal worker has pleaded guilty to embezzling almost £45,000 in cash to fund a lavish lifestyle.

Angela Doran, 38, admitted stealing two special delivery packages totalling £4,500 at the Glasgow Royal Mail Centre in Springburn on 14 July 2010.

She also admitted embezzling a further 18 packages totalling £39,150 between 1 May 2008 and 15 July 2010.

At Glasgow Sheriff Court, sentence on Doran, from East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, was deferred.

The court was told Doran worked for Royal Mail since 1991 but resigned after being investigated.

Banking process
The packages that were embezzled were special delivery packages of cash that were sent from remote post offices in Scotland and went through the sorting office in Glasgow before being forwarded on to the Glasgow Cash Centre.

Each of the packages had no more than £2,500 in them for insurance purposes.

Cash that was not forwarded on to the final destination by Royal Mail would be compensated to the post offices.

Procurator fiscal depute Deborah Carroll told the court: "The location where the packages arrived from into the mail office is significant because this banking process was known to employees, and the appearance of packages was certainly obvious in relation to what the contents were."

She added that Doran was subject to "direct surveillance" at the time because management at the centre were investigating packages going missing.

The court was told that on 14 July 2010, Doran was seen taking two packages out of a container from an outlying office and putting them into another item.

She was later approached by an investigating officer from Royal Mail and interviewed, during which she took out a package, which had £2,000 inside, from her dungarees.

During the interview she admitted she had taken a second item which they found and both packages were taken from her.

Ms Carroll also told the court: "During the course of that interview she made general admissions in connection with further embezzlements and a search took place of her home.

Designer goods
"In terms of the search that took place, it was quite clear that the accused appeared to be living beyond her means.

"It is understood that at the time she was earning around £12,000, however, there was a large consignment of designer goods discovered at her home and and in particular designer shoes, some of which had price tags attached to the boxes in excess of £300."

Her bank accounts showed that "substantial amounts of money" were deposited on days when embezzlements had taken place and over a 20 month period between May 2008 and June 2010, £30,000 cash was put into her bank.

Sheriff Kenneth Mitchell deferred sentence until next month.

The Crown made a motion for a confiscation order which will be decided at the next hearing.