Postman stole mail to fund heroin habit

Craig Richards set up an ebay account to sell DVDs he had stolen from post he was supposed to be delivering.

The 34-year-old, who had worked for Royal Mail for eight-and-a-half years, also gave stolen hair straighteners, fake eyelashes and earrings to his girlfriend, saying they were gifts.

Father-of-two Richards had been back in his job only weeks when he started stealing mail.

He had previously been sacked when hundreds of letters from his Walsall round were mysteriously reposted miles away in Wolverhampton, but got his job back following a successful appeal.

He was moved to a delivery office in Wolverhampton and then to another base in Bilston.

Richards's delivery round became the centre of complaints from customers about missing mail during the run-up to Christmas, Mr John Dove, prosecuting, told Wolverhampton Crown Court yesterday.

Some of it had been handed to three acquaintances – Robert Shaw, David Hodgetts and David Dixon – while other items were sold on ebay or given as presents to his girlfriend and her sister, the court was told.

Richards went off sick on January 3 but investigators put him under surveillance and planted mail fitted with tracker devices for him to deliver when he returned to work nine days later.

The postman did not go on his round but threw torn-up envelopes out of the car as he drove home and then called on Shaw, the court heard.

The following day he was seen giving undelivered mail to Dixon before being stopped by Royal Mail staff who discovered 31 undelivered pieces of mail in the boot and footwell of Richards's car.

There was also personal correspondence identifying Hodgetts.

More than 6,500 undelivered letters and packages with almost £2,500 worth of property missing from them were recovered from the home of Richards in Cotswold Grove, New Invention, on January 13, the court was told.

Around 2,000 more pieces of undelivered mail were uncovered a month later when the homes of Shaw, Hodgetts and Dixon were visited.

All claimed to have been "intimidated" into hoarding it for Richards, although Dixon had arranged for some stolen property to be sold on ebay, and Shaw had received other items as "gifts", Mr Dove said.

Miss Kate Thomas, defending Richards, said he had been spending up to £200 a day on drugs but had since conquered the habit.

She added: "He committed these offences to fund his addiction and try to get out of debt."

Richards admitted theft by an employee and delaying the mail and was jailed for 18 months by Judge Amjad Nawaz.

Dixon, 42, of Blackwood Way, Fordhouses, Wolverhampton, admitted handling stolen property, while 34-year-old Shaw, from Pritchard Avenue, and Hodgetts, 35, of Moathouse Lane, both Wednesfield, each pleaded guilty to acquiring criminal property.

They each received 12-month community orders with 150 hours unpaid work for Shaw and Dixon and a six-month alcohol treatment programme for Hodgetts.

Judge Amjad Nawaz said: "This was borne out of greed and occured close to Christmas because that is when the mail is known to carry cash and other gifts. You involved the others in this enterprise."