Manager - Postal worker stole parcels worth 40,000 to fund gambling addiction

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Colin Chapman, 47, admitted helping himself to packages containing iPhones, diamond wedding rings and gold jewellery

A worker who was employed by the Royal Mail for 25 years stole parcels containing high value items worth £40,000 to fund his gambling addiction.

Colin Chapman, 47, admitted helping himself to packages containing iPhones, diamond wedding rings and gold jewellery during his time as weekend shift manager at the Cardiff mail centre.

Opening the case at Cardiff Crown Court , prosecutor Rhys Thomas said it was noticed that a “significant number” of special delivery parcels were going missing.

The court heard the offending occurred between December 2014 and May 2015.

Mr Thomas said Chapman, who was working as acting weekend shift manager, took parcels containing phones, tablets and jewellery worth £44,000.

He explained the special delivery packages were in bags due to be put on lorries bound for Birmingham.

The prosecutor said: “The Royal Mail employed this defendant for more than a quarter of a century.”

Authority was given to put workers on relevant shifts under surveillance and tracked test packages containing phones and watches were sent to Birmingham.

Prosecutors said the watches made it on to the lorries, but the phones did not and were traced to the defendant’s home in Caerau.

Chapman was arrested in May 2015 and officers found the phones from the test packages at his address.

He accepted stealing those, but denied stealing other items, claiming he had bought one of the other phones from a friend in a pub.

The court heard the Royal Mail had to pay out compensation of about £16,000 for the missing packages.

Chapman, from Llandovery Close, admitted eight counts of theft by employee.

Matthew Cobbe, defending, stressed his client had no previous convictions.

He told the court Chapman had suffered from a gambling addiction for many years.