PO clerk stole more than £3,700 to treat his girlfriend

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Post office clerk stole more than £3,700 to treat his girlfriend http://www.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/new ... ticle.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A POST office clerk stole more than £3,700 to keep his new girlfriend in the lifestyle to which she had become accustomed, a court heard.

Callum Baker, 21, who lives with his mother in Beech Rise, Sleaford, appeared for sentencing at Lincoln Magistrates' Court after previously pleading guilty to three charges of theft and asking for other theft offences to be taken into consideration.

Prosecutor Jill Derby said managers at Lincolnshire Co-operative's Woodside store in Lincoln Road, Sleaford, had become suspicious of Baker after £1,000 went missing on September 22 last year.

Mrs Derby said: "The store sells scratchcards which are kept in a safe and the post office runs them through their system to keep a check on stock levels – they take cash from the store, give the store the scratch cards and place the money in the safe.



"On September 22 Baker was transferring the cash to the safe for security. He took four £1,000 bundles, but only three were put in the safe.

"Then on September 30 he was working alone and took £640 from a Co-op staff member for scratchcards, but there was no record of the 'sale' through the till.

"On October 10 he again was working alone and took £800 cash for five packets of scratchcards and then reversed the transaction. The receipt generated for that reversal was then thrown into a nearby bin."

Baker was arrested on October 25 and admitted one of the thefts Mrs Derby said. When he was re-interviewed in November he went on to admit thefts totalling £3,760.

In mitigation, solicitor Sunil Khanna said the initial theft, in August last year, was an opportunist crime committed by an employee bitter at being overlooked for promotion. He said: "Baker joined the Co-op at 19 after he completed his AS levels and is an intelligent young man.

"For the first two years there were no problems – he was happy in his work. But when a management position became available he was overlooked and he began to feel quite bitter as he had thought he had a good future.

"For the first theft, he was given the money and, in an opportunist moment, took the cash. He didn't know what to do with it, but he had a new girlfriend so he used it to treat her.

"But that meant he'd set the bar high and she then expected that level of treatment so he continued to steal.

"He's desperately sorry for what he did. He was stupid and he's ruined his future by committing these offences.

"As a member of the Territorial Army, had he not been in court he would be in Afghanistan for two tours. He wants more than anything to join the Army, but that will not happen now due to the convictions."

Baker was sentenced to 250 hours of unpaid work and ordered to repay the £3,236 he still owes over three years.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Strike Looms - stories about bad uns among the target staff start to appear - it happens every time but is there a connection.

[fishtank]

"Baker joined the Co-op at 19 after he completed his AS levels and is an intelligent young man."

Oh no he isn't.

[NWpostie]

What a knob

[Post Off]

"For the first theft, he was given the money and, in an opportunist moment, took the cash. He didn't know what to do with it, but he had a new girlfriend so he used it to treat her.

"But that meant he'd set the bar high and she then expected that level of treatment so he continued to steal.

"He's desperately sorry for what he did. He was stupid and he's ruined his future by committing these offences.

"As a member of the Territorial Army, had he not been in court he would be in Afghanistan for two tours. He wants more than anything to join the Army, but that will not happen now due to the convictions".

There is something in this that might have been overlooked. Yes he is undoubtedly a knob, and not worthy of the status given to him as being intelligent...

Had it not been for these offenses he would now be ('enjoying') touring Afghanistan. But... Now that he's got a new girlfriend and wants to please, why not make it sound as though it appears to be her -- and those of others' considerations that were on his mind?

Maybe all of this was his way of getting out of losing his new find, or girlfriend. Obviously (in his thinking), this may have made him look like a bigger c*** than he is now, but this tendency of his councilors to only underline their whys, and for all others to look away from the truth can only be a theft disguised as something else, in my opinion.


I too had wanted to join the army. I too had wanted to join the 'Red Caps', but like my army wants, I was given my marching orders -- to f**k off!


This article says so much to me, that it wants to portray all us Post Office workers as low-life, opportunist-thieving c***s. Well, it ain't so. f**k you, or anyone else who thinks like-wise. If truth be told, there are only a few of us on the outside as opposed on the inside. I.E., those on the outside don't know sh*t, but we, on the inside (God, please help us) do!


TBT is absolutely right, in thinking that there is an onslaught going on now by those of the media targeting RM employees who are taking advantage. PO... PO may always make you think of the Post Office, but it ain't, right! It was a f***ing low-life post office clerk working for a retail outfit that had (in all but function) doing a postal clerks duties, and nothing more.

[123asdfgh]

i went to school with this guy. total d*ck. the shop in question was a general shop with a bit sectioned off for the post office. He worked in the general shop. He didnt actually work with any mail or anything, he just sold fags and milk etc! To describe him as a post office clerk is incorrect by the press!!