Convicted thief was Royal Mail employee

A district judge has criticised the Royal Mail for employing a postal worker with a long criminal record for dishonesty.

Judge Graham Wilkinson was shocked to hear that 44-year-old Zydrunas Ksonas was employed as a sorting officer by Royal Mail when he appeared at the city's magistrates court on two charges of theft.

The native Lithuanian had a history of 26 convictions for dishonesty against him since arriving in the UK in 2004, the court heard yesterday.

Mr Wilkinson said: "A person as dishonest as Mr Ksonas should not be working with Royal Mail when there is an ongoing problem of things going missing from the mail."

When told via an interpreter that Ksonas was employed through an agency, he said that it was the Royal Mail's responsibility to ensure agencies carried out staff checks.

Ksonas, of Leicester Street, Whitmore Reans, Wolverhampton, was jailed for eight weeks after admitting two counts of thefts.

Roger Bleazard, prosecuting, said Ksonas was arrested on Wednesday when he was caught stealing a bottle of non-alcoholic mulled wine wine from Marks & Spencer's in Dudley Street.

He was also sentenced for the theft of a case of Stella lager, worth £11, from Asda in Whitmore Reans on November 9.

Royal Mail spokesman Richard Hall said today that an inquiry into the matter had been launched.