Royal Mail manager jailed for stealing cash from post
A ROYAL Mail manager has been jailed for six months for stealing cash from greetings cards at the Plymouth depot.
David Baker, aged 47, was a night shift manager at Plymouth Mail Centre in Plymstock and had worked for the Royal Mail for nearly 24 years before he was suspended after an internal investigation caught him stealing.
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The court heard that he earned £35,000 a year, had paid off his mortgage and owned a second property that he rented out.
He and his wife of 27 years had bought two new cars last year.
Yesterday at Plymouth Crown Court, prosecutor Piers Norsworthy said that Baker's employers became suspicious that mail was being tampered with at the Plymouth centre and mounted a surveillance operation.
On October 2, 2008, the actions of Baker aroused suspicion - he was seen selecting brightly coloured greetings cards and leaving them on a trolley he was supposed to be emptying.
He was also seen repeatedly putting his hand in his pocket.
The following night, a Royal Mail investigation team tracked him, filming his activities on VHS tape, with the highlights later transferred to DVD.
Baker was confronted, searched and found to have five bank-notes totalling £75 crumpled into his right-hand trouser pocket, together with a £2 coin.
In his back pocket was his wallet containing £9 in change and a neatly-folded £5 note.
Mr Norsworthy said that 22 items were found to have been tampered with in the area Baker had been working in that night.
Baker had denied the charges against him but a Plymouth jury unanimously found him guilty of two counts of interfering with mail and three of theft totalling £52.
Nick Lewin, for the defence, said Baker, from Rocky Park Road, Plymstock, continued to deny the offences.
He said: "He did not plead guilty because he was a well respected man. The evidence was pretty overwhelming but to plead guilty would have been very difficult for him."
Mr Lewin gave the judge a letter from Baker's wife and asked him not to jail his client for her benefit.
Judge Francis Gilbert QC told Baker: "This is a tragedy for your wife and indeed for your children.
"You were earning £35,000 a year as a shift manager. You had no need for this crime."
He added: "Interfering with postal packages are serious offences, in your case made worse by the fact that you were in a managerial position."
Judge Gilbert sentenced Baker to six months in prison for each of the five offences he was convicted of, to be served concurrently.
He also ordered Baker to pay his own legal costs and £3,000 towards the cost of his trial.
ends
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by Postman Prat, Hand inside the postbox
Wednesday, January 20 2010, 3:02PM
“What a shame.....this silver-fox does the dirty and lands his postman-pat rear in jail. As a result, the poor family who may well have been blind to his actions, now have no 'Husband' or 'Father' in the house. And then to top it all.....they print the family's road!! Hahaha don't know about the rest of you...but I'm throwing dogsh*t through every door on Rocky Park Road......if it goes through the wrong door....well look on the bright side, it makes up for all the post that our mate Dave the Rave has been stealing from you! Our country is just the greatest.”
by Sarah Buckingham (now Coley), BOURNEMOUTH
Monday, January 18 2010, 1:36PM
“Whilst I can well understand the commonly-held view that David's wife must have known or suspected something, I personally doubt that she did, based upon what I know of her as a person. A nicer lady than Mrs Baker would be hard to find.”
by JJ, plymouth
Monday, January 18 2010, 2:30AM
“What goes around comes around ! Just takes time thats all !”
by Silver, Torpoint
Monday, January 18 2010, 12:03AM
“This man is the most arrogant, ignorant scum I have ever had the mis-fortune to be acquainted with. Yes, Royal Mail has it's problems but most of them are caused through the likes of Baker. He had the gaul to point the finger at many of his colleagues just to hide his own selfish, thieving ambitions. If there is any real justice in this corrupt country he will never work again. I hope he suffers the consequences of his actions for the rest of his life. 6 months and a fine is far too good for this man. He must never be allowed to hold a position of trust ever again.”
by Chris.P.Duck, Wan Kin House
Sunday, January 17 2010, 11:31AM
“Lol. The look on his face suggests he's trying to suppress a particularly vicious fart.”
by She moaned,, but less than Monica
Sunday, January 17 2010, 2:07AM
“I wouldn't recommend sending money through the post, but if people really think Posties take it in turns to open the envelopes that are obviously cards they could do what my first love used to do.
She'd send me cards, but enclose them in a big buff envelope of her employers and frank it using their mail bill too.
So she stole my heart, my cherry and her employers postage.”
by Reality Cheques, Plymouth
Sunday, January 17 2010, 1:50AM
“Monica, you could be right!
The new Royal Uniform comes with X-Ray specs so the posties can identify the envelopes containing cheques.
All your mail is probably in a backlog somewhere as all the Royal Mail Posties are skiving at the Airports working as Security Guards using their Royal Mail X-Ray Specs to look through the clothes of everyone and spot wannabe Jihadists with the johnny F&rtp&nts underwear.
Monica, you obviously have Internet Access if it's that important for you to send funds to friends and families why not PayPal it to them or pay it straight into their bank accounts?”
by Monica, Plymouth
Saturday, January 16 2010, 11:08PM
“I sent several cards in the weeks leading up to Christmas, including a birthday card containing a cheque, at least three of these never reached their destination. Unfortunately, the one containing the cheque was one of them. The only comfort is, that the thief will not be able to cash it! Maybe we should adopt Sharia Law?!”
by Molly, Sutton
Saturday, January 16 2010, 10:25PM
“I hope Dave has a FIRST CLASS time in prison - I bet no one else had thought of that pun!”
by Buy 2 Let, Doesn't a criminal make
Saturday, January 16 2010, 7:59PM
“Many people took out buy to let mortgages, hoping to make money on ever rising property values and getting an investment and/or property by getting the tenant to cover the mortgage via their rental payments.
Having a buy to let doesn't automatically mean he funded it by his thefts does it?
Someone said that his wife would have known. Well it's beyond the realms of imagination that he opened another account, but he did use the excuse that it's a joint account with his wife to refuse access to details of his banking transactions.”