MONTREAL - A Montreal letter carrier pleaded guilty yesterday in what is being called the biggest case of mail theft in Canadian history.
Eric Belley, 34, stole more than 100,000 letters and packages over a six-year period.
The letters were left untouched, and that was the problem -- the prosecutor said he believes Belley was simply too lazy to do his job. Instead of delivering mail to his customers, the Montrealer took entire bags of letters home, hiding them in his Montreal-area apartment or at his cottage north of the city.
"It was a shock. We had never seen such a thing, 75,000 or 100,000 pieces of mail," said Catherine Lortie of Canada Post.
Yesterday, the former postman pleaded guilty to mail theft. It appeared he had little choice after being caught in the act red-handed.
In the corporation's investigation of Belley, he was filmed removing bags of mail from the trunk of his car and taking it inside his home. He faces up to 10 years in jail.
Belley's defence lawyer said his client suffers from mental-health problems and has been "followed up by a psychiatrist."
Jean-Marc Tremblay requested a pre-sentencing evaluation of his client, but the Crown said Belley was simply lazy and did not care about the undelivered mail.
When investigators took a closer look at the stolen letters, they noticed that most of them were destined for apartments located on the second and third floors of homes in the area.
Two weeks after Belley was arrested, Canada Post set up a task force to ensure that the stolen letters were delivered.
for only 2/3 days mail (in my office), all that would happen in my office is it would just be added to everyones deliveries and then you'd be flexed up 