'Phone-obsessed' worker stole mobiles worth 2.5k

[POSTMAN]

'Phone-obsessed' worker stole mobiles worth £2.5k

http://www.thisissussex.co.uk/Phone-obs ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A POSTAL worker who has an "unhealthy obsession with mobile phones" dodged a prison sentence after stealing thousands of pounds worth of mail from his sorting office.

Vinodbhai Patel, an employee at the Royal Mail's Gatwick Mail Centre, helped himself to packaged iPhones.

Having been caught by a surveillance operation, investigators then found £20,000 worth of mobile phones at his Langley Green home and in his vehicle.

The 49-year-old appeared at Crawley Magistrates' Court on Monday, where he was given an 18-week jail term, suspended for two years.

The court heard that Patel had worked at the sorting office since June 2010.

Last February staff at a sorting office in Warrington, Cheshire, noticed that postal packets which arrived there had been tampered with at the Gatwick base.

Royal Mail investigators then mounted a surveillance operation and caught Patel opening packages and stealing the contents.

Paul Sharkey, prosecuting, told the court: "On the evening of March 24 last year officers saw this defendant working in the sorting office.

"He was seen to squeeze a postal packet, then seen to rip it open and take either an iPhone or iPod and put it in his trouser pocket.

"He was then seen taking another iPhone or iPod and placing it in his trouser pocket."

Patel was searched by a member of staff, who found two iPhones, an iPod and a Samsung phone on him.

Investigators then searched his vehicle and home in Langley Drive – and found more than £20,000 of phones, which were seized.

Most of them could not be proven to be stolen but a deprivation order was granted by the court because it was thought likely they had been stolen.

He ended up being charged over the theft of phones worth an estimated £2,500.

Patel's solicitor, Adrian Dagger, told the court his client had an obsession with phones and collected them as a hobby.

He said: "My learned friend leaps to say that if the phones on the charge sheet are stolen then they all must have been stolen.

"My suggestion is that the prosecution are not entitled to jump to the conclusion that they are all stolen.

"He collects phones as a hobby. Clearly from the number of phones, it has become an obsession."

A report by the Probation Service also stated Patel had "an unhealthy obsession with mobile phones".

Delivery notes, which would have been in the envelopes with mobile phones, were found at his address, which proved those items had been stolen.

As well as the phones, investigators found a Jasper Conran wallet, which had been lost by a woman in Arundel.

When it was handed into her bank and posted back to her, Patel opened the envelope and stole the wallet.

The woman received just an empty envelope in the post.

Patel pleaded guilty to theft of the wallet, five iPhones, an iPod, a Blackberry phone and three other phones between June 2010 and March 2012.

Patel was also ordered to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work. He must also pay Royal Mail's investigation and court costs, which together totalled £4,354.