Post worker who stole equipment must repay from his pension

[TrueBlueTerrier]

Former post worker who stole equipment must repay his ex-employers - from his pension

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Desmond Seaman, 34, has agreed to pay more than £13,000 compensation back to Royal Mail from his £60,000 pension pot

A former Parcel Force worker who stole his employer’s equipment must compensate them out of his own pension.

Desmond Seaman, 34, made more than £13,000 from stealing and selling his employer’s old equipment.

Now he has been ordered under the Proceeds of Crime Act to reimburse Royal Mail.

The entire sum will be paid from his pension with his former employer of £60,625 after 15 years’ work.

He has given his consent for the money to be taken back from his Post Office pension, Teesside Crown Court heard.

He stole 101 handheld computers and finger scanners, no longer in use and stored in a Middlesbrough depot.

He sold them to another company second-hand for £13,200, falsifying documents to make it look to the innocent buyer like a legitimate sale.

He used his work position to mail the stolen devices without paying postage, the court was told in February.

The equipment was sold on to an untraceable third party and never recovered.

Seaman spent the cash in a week as he rushed to pay off bank and credit card debt and mortgage payments.

He forged signatures and used the names of two other employees, wrongly casting suspicion on them.

He confessed to investigators, saying he was heavily in debt since a marriage breakup.

Seaman, of Penllyn Way, Hemlington, Middlesbrough, admitted his first crimes of theft, converting criminal property and four counts of obtaining services dishonestly.

He said he saw the redundant scanners “gathering dust” and acted thoughtlessly in a desperate financial position trying to support his estranged wife and his children. He was sorry and wanted to make reparations.

He was given an eight-month prison sentence suspended for two years with 150 hours’ unpaid work in February. He was back in court yesterday for the proceeds of crime hearing.

It was agreed he made £13,667 from crime.

He could pay the full amount - plus £4,752 costs - from his pension pot, it was said.

Prosecutor Barry Robson said: “He’s got a pension plan with Royal Mail in the sum of about £60,000.

“There is a clause in the contract which allows Royal Mail to draw down on that for the benefit which has been realised in this particular crime.

“He’s signed a document which allows that to take place.

“All the money’s coming from the pension plan. That can be accomplished in 30 days.

“That allows the money to be directly taken from the pension fund and diverted towards Royal Mail in satisfaction of the debt.

“The pension pot has been accumulated over the 15 years he’s worked for Royal Mail.”

John Nixon, defending, said: “It resolves the matter satisfactorily.”

Judge Howard Crowson formally made a confiscation and compensation order for the £13,667 to be paid to Royal Mail.

[savo]

He got a result there - accessed his lump sum way before age 55 !

[arnold cheshire]

He got a result there - accessed his lump sum way before age 55 !

or 58 in 2028 which would have been when accessible to him

[DB1100]

I thought for 1 minute that he had made £13000 from selling our PDA's,now that would be some achievement.