Jail for West Yorkshire postman who hid 20,000 parcels

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Jail for West Yorkshire postman who hid 20,000 parcels in his home

http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/n ... _1_3304338" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A POSTMAN who had almost 20,000 packages hidden in his home when it was searched by Royal Mail investigators has been jailed for 16 months.

Matthew Robinson, 35, hoarded the undelivered mail at his home in Featherstone over a period of two years and five months before he was finally caught.

Robinson had opened over 8,000 and kept some of the contents but almost 11,000 of the parcels were left untouched in sacks.

Leeds Crown Court heard the value of the items he had stolen was not known.

Adam Beaumont, prosecuting, said Robinson was placed under surveillance in December last year.

He was filmed taking a package not intended for his delivery area from Pontefract Post Office and officers stopped him when he was out on his delivery round.

During interview he claimed to have taken the package after misreading the address on the label but admitted to having mail at home which he had failed to deliver.

A search of his home revealed 8,290 opened packages along with 10,891 that were still intact.

Mr Robinson said clients affected by his actions were well known companies who had sent items to customers. They included Amazon, HMV, Barclaycard, Yorkshire Bank, Lloyds TSB, Love Film and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Stamps on the packages revealed he had failed to deliver mail during every month from July 2008 to December 2010.

Royal Mail were able to send the unopened packages to their rightful owners, along with a letter of apology.

Robinson, of Lea Lane, Featherstone, pleaded guilty to theft and intentionally delaying postal packages.

Stephen Swann, mitigating, said Robinson had been a postman since October 2007 but had been suffering from depression as a result of a bereavement and the breakdown of a relationship.

He said his primary motive was not to steal. Sometimes Robinson would drive to an area but felt unable to get out of his van.

Judge Sally Cahill said she had to impose a prison sentence due to the large number of items involved.

[Throgg]

I was expecting this story to read that he had 2 letters and 19998 D2D's in his house, most of these stories usually turn out that way on closer examination, but this looks like he had 20000 packets in his house. Why would you hoard that amount of packets and where do you find the space to keep them? Do these people really think that nobody will notice or complain?

[dvbuk55]

On a 5 day working week over 2 and a half years, he worked 650 days, with 20000 items missing he was nicking 30 items a day

[Straight4ward]

Colleagues became suspicious when he stopped using his PCOD and started bringing his own van in everyday.

Parcels.JPG

[brothermagrew]

So it took 2 years 5 months before Royal Mail investigators cottoned on to the fact that items were not being delivered by this postman. Surely there were numerous complaints made to the DO or indeed to customer complaints about undelivered packet or parcel items over that two years 5 months period. Why has it taken so long for an investigation to be initiated?

[Post Off]

16 months for 20,000 packages.

[POSTMAN]

It can't be all packets,they also mention 'Barclaycard, Yorkshire Bank, Lloyds TSB, and the Royal Bank of Scotland' so it deffo aint all packets.
Wrong reporting.

[casperian]

Clearly the poor man must be very confused and depressed. I don't think they should have imposed a heavy prison sentance on him. He needs help and should be able to helped to come to terms with what he has done.

[fishtank]

Clearly the poor man must be very confused and depressed. I don't think they should have imposed a heavy prison sentance on him. He needs help and should be able to helped to come to terms with what he has done.

Interesting first post..
Sarcasm or personal interest?

[chunk]

This man was a postman for 3 years 2 months
and stole for (at least) 2 years 5 months im assuming that was from the earliest dated packet
they could find. so he maybe put in 6 months of an honest job

To me this isn't a case of good postman gone bad


This man was clearly never cut out for a position of trust

He hadn't even finished a probationary period before he started pilfering
the questions should be who hired him? Was he properly checked out?
did he lie on his application?
I have tremendous sympathy for those that break under the strain but that is clearly not the case here .
I suspect some obsessive mental illness may play its part .. why thousands of packets and not just a few valuable items ?
why open some packets and not others?
RM failed to sieve this one out they then failed to spot anything was wrong.
Too many managers just want it out the office and job done.

[labbloke]

No sympathy at all from me.

Might have had some if the pilfering barsteward hadnt opened other peeps mail.

[tvpunter]

Don't justify robbin at all..but nobody's perfect and if you can breeze through life..brill..but some people fall of the rail..my wife works in a neuoroligy hospital and she see's mental breakdowns daily...for simple and complex reasons...now some people just like nick'n stuff to sell..easy living but the yankies have a word that describes when someone goe's nut's..kills from roofs with guns ect..ect He went postal!!!!!!

[tobytyke]

He worked at my D/O, they went to collect the mail from his house and had to go back with a bigger van there was so much,
It took about 3 weeks to finally get the items re delivered cause every item needed putting in a damaged bag with a covering letter explaining what had happened.
Glad he's got sentenced it makes us all look bad when this happens.