Midland parcel delivery workers caught red-handed with stolen goods worth £2,000
Two parcel delivery workers were caught red-handed with stolen goods worth an estimated £2,000 in their van.
Wolverhampton Crown Court heard that DPD driver Alhareth Ali( and his drivers' mate Abdulrrahman Thabet initially denied any wrongdoing, but admitted a joint charge of theft before the start of a delayed jury trial earlier this year.
Mr William Dudley, prosecuting, said the pair were caught out "by chance" by the parcel company's security team in an "on the road audit" on December 18, 2018.
He said the items included five high value items, including a laptop, Pandora and John Lewis goods, along with customer invoices and packaging, were found in between the seats.
Mr Dudley said the items had come from a batch of goods transferred from a broken down van at the depot to Ali's vehicle. He said the DPD's scan procedure had not been correctly followed when the switch took place and the defendants took advantage of this to steal.
Sentencing the pair, Judge Michael Chambers KC said their actions had inconvenienced customers who were waiting for the goods, harmed the reputation of DPD and had "clearly crossed the custody threshold".
He said the defendants, who were unrepresented at Wednesday's hearing due to the Criminal Bar Association industrial action, were sacked as a result and only had themselves to blame for the case taking almost four years to be dealt with.
But he said neither defendant had previous convictions and both had kept out of trouble since the incident in Redditch.
Alhareth, 28, of Ferndale Crescent, Highgate, and Thabet, 27, of Oakwood Road, Sparkhill, both Birmingham, were sentenced to 12-month community orders. They must carry out 120 hours unpaid work and pay the victims' surcharge.
