A court has heard that a Magherafelt postman ‘abused his position of trust' by opening and stealing banknotes from greeting cards sent in the post.
Magherafelt Magistrates’ Court also heard this morning how Royal Mail had caught 39 year-old Gary Doyle out after launching an internal sting operation.
Doyle, whose address was given as Clarkes Crescent, Gulladuff was charged with six counts of theft by employee and six counts of interfering with mail.
The court heard that the defendant was employed by the Royal Mail, who on July 5 last year, suspected him of interfering with mail, namely greeting cards.
Royal Mail investigators launched an operation to test Doyle’s honesty.
On July 7, Royal Mail placed a number of greeting cards containing bank notes in the sorting box which they knew he would be working from.
Follow-up investigations found that bank notes were missing from some of the cards.
The defendant was interviewed by Royal Mail investigators and admitted opening some of the letters, stealing bank notes, then resealing them.
He also admitted that he may have stolen more money but he had spent some of it.
During interview he said that he was due to go on a stag party and it was down to his financial situation that he had committed the offences.
The court heard that in total, Doyle had stolen a total of £65.
Defence barrister, Eoghan Devlin told the court that the defendant has since lost his job with Royal Mail.
He said: “It’s not the amount of money that makes this serious, it’s the breach of trust as a public servant. The seriousness of the offences are not lost on the defendant.
“A medical report has been supplied by his doctor but I don’t want to open that in an open court. However I will allude to his family circumstances. It appears that he made a family discovery and his dependencies had stemmed from this discovery.
“He is a 39 year-old man who had worked some 17 years for Royal Mail and was extremely well thought of, but he now faces a range of serious criminal offences. He is now unemployed after losing an extremely good and responsible job,” he said.
Mr Devlin added: “He held his hands up at the earliest opportunity. The only delay with this case was down to his lawyers. I would ask you to afford him maximum credit.”
Addressing the defendant, District Judge Alan White said: “This was a serious breach of trust but on the other hand you only have a minor motoring offence on your record. The author of this pre-sentence report feels that you would benefit significantly from probation.”
Judge White placed Doyle on probation for 18 months and ordered him 100 hours community service.
“I would like to think that you will complete both of these requirements and that the court will never see you again,” said Judge White.
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