Crooked parcel worker avoids having to pay for laptops he stole - because he can't afford it

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A FORMER Parcelforce worker from Plymouth who stole laptops worth nearly £1,200 will not have to pay back the money - after top judges ruled he can't afford it.

Shaun Derek Woodman, 49, of Tavistock Road, was a delivery driver at Parcelforce Worldwide Hub, at the Middlemarch Business Park, in Baginton, near Coventry.


He was convicted of three counts of theft and caged for eight months at Warwick Crown Court on February 1.

He was also ordered to pay £1,192.77 compensation to the Royal Mail within 12 months.

Woodman stole packages containing laptop computers, Mrs Justice McGowan told London's Appeal Court.


His barrister Edward Bailey said because of Woodman's conviction he had lost his job as a bus driver with Stagecoach, in Plymouth.

Despite having been released on home detention curfew, he is unemployed and simply does not have the money to pay the compensation, he argued.

"Despite his good character and good employment record an immediate custodial sentence was inevitable," said Mrs Justice McGowan, who was sitting with Mr Justice Saunders.

But she ruled: "It was wrong to impose a compensation order in addition to the sentence of immediate imprisonment.

"Accordingly we quash the compensation order."