Postie jailed for stealing letters

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A POSTMAN from Harrow has been jailed for four months after stealing a dozen postal packages, including Christmas cards with gift vouchers and cash.

Royal Mail began investigating 36-year-old Nikhil Taylor when a member of the public reported that they had found opened mail, with the contents removed, strewn across a street in Northolt.

Taylor, of Northumberland Road, North Harrow, was a reserve driver at a Greenford depot. Records showed he was covering the Northolt route at the time, in December 2009.

An investigation was launched and four special delivery packages were strategically placed on his collection route by officers in March last year - two of which never arrived.

When Taylor's car was searched, officers found a gift card and voucher hidden in a visor, while checks on his home address in Harrow uncovered an open postal package containing a DVD.

At Harrow Crown Court on Thursday, January 20 Taylor admitted stealing 12 postal packets and a DVD to the value of £350.

He told a probation officer that he did it in 'an attempt to get back at his manager'.

Sentencing him to four months' imprisonment, Judge Nic Madge said: "Cases involving theft of mail are more serious than other cases of theft from an employer.

"They involve not only loss to the employer but cause distress to the public, who put their trust in postmen.

"Tampering with mail damages public confidence in Royal Mail and the Court of Appeal has said that such offences must be punished by imprisonment."

Taylor was also ordered to pay £350 in compensation and £650 towards the Royal Mail's legal costs.

The court heard Taylor would have to use his wife's savings to help pay off the debt.

A Royal Mail spokesman was not able to provide figures of how many convictions were brought against employees in the last year, but added: "Royal Mail has a zero-tolerance approach to any dishonesty and that stance is shared by the overwhelming majority of postmen and women, who are honest and hardworking and deliver the mail safely.

"We will always seek to prosecute anyone who abuses their position of trust."