Suspicious neighbours helped to catch crooked postie

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A KILWINNING postie who stole money out of other people’s birthday cards has been sentenced to community service.


As the Irvine Times revealed last month Brian Lynch, of Wood Street, was uncovered by an internal investigation launched by the Royal Mail in September last year.

Investigators were spurred into action by complaints from the public after several greeting cards failed to reach their recipients on Lynch’s Kilwinning route.

Test packages were then mixed in with his deliveries, but again, a number of these never reached their destination.

On September 10, the operation was repeated, but this time a Royal Mail surveillance team followed Lynch as he went out on his route.

They trailed him down to a betting shop in the town, observing as he went inside and sank some money into a roulette machine, while still on shift. He was then followed to a bakery, where he bought food and drink.

When members of the surveillance team spoke to staff in the shops concerned, they confirmed that the money used was the same cash they had planted in the test packets.

Lynch was interviewed the following day and admitted stealing £21, which he used in the betting shop and bakery. He told investigators that he had a gambling problem and had been funding his habit with the cash he’d stolen.

He was suspended at the end of the interview, but later sacked and the matter was referred to the police.

The now unemployed 29-year-old appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court last month, when he pled guilty to a charge of stealing postal packets and their contents from Kilwinning Delivery Office in the Main Street, between September 4 and 11.

The court heard this was Lynch’s first conviction and that it would now be very difficult for him to find another job.

His lawyer, Mr Alexander, conceded that this was “clearly a breach of trust”, but reiterated that Lynch had been struggling with a gambling problem at the time, but had since been seeking help.

He returned for sentencing last week, when he was ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work in the community.

In addition, he was put on a curfew for four months.