Postman stole contents from customers' mail and then sold em

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Postman stole contents from customers' mail and then sold them on eBay

http://www.harlowstar.co.uk/Postman-sto ... story.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

A postman who stole the contents of customers' mail and then advertised them for sale on online auction site eBay has been warned he could be sent to jail.

Mark Cozens, 47, of Park Close, North Weald, even altered a tax disc and displayed it in his own car, magistrates heard.

Cozens, who had completed 28 years' service with the Royal Mail, pleaded guilty to six offences when he appeared at Chelmsford Magistrates Court.

However, the magistrates decided the offences were so serious that their powers of punishment were insufficient and so they remanded the case to the crown court for sentence.

He admitted five offences of theft. They involved stealing: a quantity of postal packets and contents at Epping between April 9, 2012 and April 11, 2014; £135.63 between the same dates; a vehicle excise licence between October 1 and November 1, 2013; a packet containing $1,030US on October 22, 2013 and a packet containing $ 3,300US on March 27.

The sixth charge was converting criminal property by advertising stolen postal packets on eBay between April 9, 2012 and April 11, 2014.

Laura McKennon, prosecuting, said : "This is a serious breach of trust and of public confidence in the delivery of packets by Royal Mail. It has been committed over about two years and the estimated total value is about £19,000."

She said a number of customers complained in April/May last year about mail which had gone missing, including cash from greetings cards. Other thefts involving foreign currency were reported in August 2013.

Royal Mail investigators suspected Cozens was responsible for the thefts but there was no concrete evidence against him.

CCTV cameras were placed in the office and Cozens was seen going in outside his normal working hours when he should not have been there.

When a special delivery packet containing £3,300US went missing on March 27 this year, the cameras recorded Cozens taking the unattended package, hiding it and then retrieving it later.

A few days later a car tax disc on which the details had been altered was spotted in the defendant's vehicle. The DVLA confirmed it belonged to a different car and had been reported as missing.

On April 10 Cozens was interviewed and his home searched. He admitted what he had done and said he had been selling items he had stolen on eBay.

Miss McKennon said the market value of those items was £16,758.86.