Mail manager: I did not steal from envelopes

[johnnyp]

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Mail manager: I did not steal from envelopes

Friday, November 13, 2009, 07:00A ROYAL Mail manager has denied stealing cash from greetings cards while sorting mail at the Plymstock Mail Centre.
David Baker, aged 47, denies five charges of theft from postal packets on October 3 last year.
He also denies charges of interfering with postal packets on October 2 and 3.
Baker, of Rocky Park Road, Plymstock, appeared in the dock during the third day of his trial at Plymouth Crown Court yesterday.
The court heard he was of good character and had never been in trouble with the courts before.
Baker said he had been working for the Royal Mail for about twenty three and a half years before the alleged events, and in the sorting office for three years.
He said he had just finished paying off his mortgage with endowment policies that had matured, and he had no outstanding debts and no drug, alcohol or gambling problems.
Baker was found with £75 in crumpled notes and a £2 coin in his front right trouser pocket during a search, the court heard.
The 12-person jury was shown CCTV footage of Baker allegedly dropping coloured envelopes back into a bin of mail and then making movements with his hands out of sight of the camera.
Baker said: "I did not dishonestly open any packages. I did not steal anything from any envelope."
Kelly Scrivener, prosecuting, asked what he was doing when both his hands were in the trolley for some time.
Baker replied: "I'm isolating them into a corner because I know where they are. I'll come back when I get more loose items."
Shown on CCTV apparently scrunching a white piece of paper, putting it in a waste bin and putting his hand in his pocket, Scrivener alleged Baker had thrown away an envelope and put a £10 note in his pocket.
Baker said: "You saw me pull something, what I was doing was opening a Strapex bundle. You saw me put paper in the bin, I would imagine the Strapex would have been part of that rubbish.
"I think the white paper was label bundles; I was screwing up quite a few of those."
Nick Lewin, defending, said the white piece of paper dropped in the bin on CCTV had a stamp and was not the one exhibited to the court, which had no stamp.
He said one of the cards Baker was alleged to have stolen from, posted at St Ive near Liskeard, contained £20.50.
Mr Lewin said: "Where's the 50 pence? It's not in his pocket and it's not in the bin. What's happened to the envelope? It was never recovered."
He said £5 was found in Baker's pocket scrunched up in a £20 note and added: "The £5 note did not come from any of these 20 envelopes, nobody said they had lost £5. But the prosecution had to charge him with £5 because they found it in his pocket. No one has complained of losing £25."
Baker's fingerprints had not been on any of the notes either, he added.
The trial is expected to conclude today.

[Stormproof]

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Royal Mail manager guilty of theft
Friday, November 13, 2009, 12:44

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​ROYAL Mail manager David Baker has been found guilty of interfering with postal packets and stealing from mail.

Baker, 47, from Rocky Park Road, Plymstock, had denied two counts of interfering with postal packets, and five counts of theft - totalling £77.

But the jury at Plymouth Crown Court today unanimously found him guilty of five of the seven charges.

Baker will be sentenced in three weeks following the preparation of a report from the Probation Service, but the judge, Recorder Martin Meeke QC, asked Royal Mail investigator Sarah Potterton whether they would consider launching a Proceeds of Crime Act application.

This would allow a full investigation into Baker's financial affairs.

Mrs Potterton told the court that the investigation which lead to Baker's arrest had been launched after three years of high-levels of damage to post in the Plymouth and Truro postcode areas.

She said the number of letters damaged on the day of Bakers arrest - 22 - was fairly typical.

Recorder Meeke granted Baker unconditional bail until he is sentenced, but warned him: "you are at significant risk of losing your liberty."

[Dee Plish]

A Royal Mail manager telling lies. Nothing new is it?

[norbert]

A Royal Mail manager telling lies. Nothing new is it?

they'll be be more severe with him for p***ing them about ? , seen it happen on one of the few occasions a manager was prosecuted

the problem is with some - they ( and some staff ) think they're fireproof as they've been there that long and the RM old boy network will protect them - I'm afraid the world has changed .