Postman spared jail after stealing mail

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://tinyurl.com/yu5tyo

17 July 2007 19:09 - There is a photo on the EDP24 site as well

A former Dereham postman has been spared jail to allow him to seek help for his gambling addiction that drove him to steal hundreds of pounds from mail.

Adam Allenden, 35, abused his position of trust working in Dereham delivery office by opening mail, stealing about 100 packages and letters and about £270 in cash and burning 80 items of post to cover his tracks.

Two of his victims, Stacey Thompson and Joshua Kinning, were children who had money stolen from their birthday cards.

Allenden, of Parkers Close in Wymondham, was given a six month jail sentence, suspended for a year, to allow him to continue to attend Gamblers Anonymous meetings.

He was also ordered to carry out 300 hours of unpaid work, pay £1,000 costs and to keep a curfew for six months.

Allenden admitted theft of an unknown number of postal packets and also burning an unknown number of packets between April 1 and April 12 last year, as well as theft of £35 from five postal packets and opening packets on April 12 last year.

The court heard that the dad-of-two had been gambling since he began betting on horses and playing fruit machines aged 18 but that his habit had spiralled out of control and become an addiction.

Magistrates were told that his wife was unaware how serious his gambling problem was until Royal Mail investigators raided their home while they were holding a birthday party for one of their children.

Presiding magistrate Peter Stokes told Allenden: “The severity of the offences to which you have pleaded guilty are extremely serious.

“The public are entitled to expect that if something is posted to them it will arrive untampered with, you have breached that trust.

“Your motivation for committing these offences was your gambling addiction and if you can resolve that hopefully the dishonesty will go away.â€

[norbet colon]

We had a widely publicised case when she got 15mths for a £80,000 theft , the IB were caught with thier pants down over this , so there was entrapment for a mgr with a fondness for fruit machines . The IB told him to resign or we'll prosecute when it got leaked to the local rag , he was sacked , he appealed & the court case was forever being delayed . Royal Mail Mgr narrowly escapes Prison for £42 was the headline. It made a change from the usual No case to answer , or sudden promotions after police enquiries after a ram raid & a blue pouch with £40,000 " going missing " with managers in Central Lancs