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A DISHONEST postman has been jailed for nine months for stealing a bank card sent to a 97-year-old care home resident and using it to raid £5,300 from his account.
Mohammed Saeed, 34, of Ellis Street, Little Horton, Bradford, deliberately targeted a vulnerable and elderly man believing he would not miss the debit card or the money, the Recorder of Bradford, Judge Richard Mansell QC, told him.
Saeed pleaded guilty to theft of the card and three counts of fraud by false representation.
Bradford Crown Court heard that the victim’s son had power of attorney for his father because he was unable to manage his own affairs.
Last year, he set up online banking so that he could access his father’s account. When he signed into it in June, 2020, he immediately noticed several withdrawals of cash for £250 each. He looked back through May and noticed several more.
Suspecting fraud, he contacted the bank and was told that a new debit card had been sent to his father. Further enquiries confirmed that it had never been received.
“This is because you, Mohammed Saeed, had been the postman employed by Royal Mail to deliver post on the round which included the care home and you had quite deliberately stolen this item of post, no doubt being able to feel the envelope and appreciate that it contained a bank debit card.
“It follows that you must have also taken the letter that contained the PIN number and therefore it is clear you deliberately targeted a vulnerable and elderly man from whom to steal, knowing or believing that he would not miss the debit card or the money.
“It was an offence committed in gross breach of the trust placed in you by Royal Mail to deliver post to the public and not steal items of post in transit,” Judge Mansell said.
The police were alerted and when a CCTV trawl was done, more than one person recognised the description as being that of the regular postman.
Saeed denied the offences when he was arrested. He accepted he was on the CCTV but said he was using his own bank card. He went on to plead guilty after a trial was listed for next year.
Judge Mansell said the offences were aggravated by the extreme vulnerability of the victim and the emotional impact on his son when he found out his father had been preyed on.
Although Saeed was of previous good character he had shown no real remorse, at first denying the offences and trying to lie his way out of them.
