Royal mail cleaner who stole greeting cards and cash caught out on CCTV

A Royal Mail cleaner stole greetings cards and the proceeds of a whip-round for a colleague who was leaving.

Susan Joy James, was caught after CCTV showed her spending a £20 Asda gift voucher sent by a woman in Flint to her parents in Anglesey that failed to arrive.

The 61-year-old denied the offences which included stealing more than 50 postal packets but was convicted at an earlier hearing.

James, who had no previous convictions, was handed a 52 week jail sentence suspended for a year.

She was also ordered to carry out 240 hours unpaid work with compensation of £70 to Royal Mail.

And she was ordered to £1,000 towards the prosecution costs with the remaining £4,300 coming from central funds.

North East Wales Magistrates’ Court District Judge Gwyn Jones said while the monetary value of the stolen items was not substantial her actions caused a high level of inconvenience and emotional distress to people who did not receive their mail.

The judge added: “It has a knock-on effect on the good name and reputation of the company.”

More than 50 packets were found in the cleaning room at the Flint delivery office and the judge said her explanations were unbelievable.

Andrea Fitzgerald, prosecuting in Mold, told how James, of Dee Cottages, Flint , worked as a cleaner for the Royal Mail at the Flint delivery office for 13 years.

Suspicions were aroused in September last year when Jennie Houlgrave posted an anniversary card with the £20 Asda gift voucher to her parents in Anglesey.

After the card failed to arrive, Ms Houlgrave went to Asda to cancel the card but was told it was already spent.

CCTV footage from Asda’s Flint store showed James using the stolen card to purchase cigarettes and tea bags.

The prosecutor said James had previously been told not to handle mis-sorted mail but had continued to do so.

Two test cards, both obviously greetings cards, were placed in the mis-sorted area on December 11 and within a couple of hours they were missing.

Interviewed, she said she found the gift card in the compound and thought someone had thrown it away.

She then unlocked the cleaning room and immediately went in where she was obstructed from view.

James was asked several times to come out and eventually emerged carrying a tray with a black bin bag on it.

She tried to walk past investigators saying she needed to clean the toilet but was asked several times to remove the bag.

It was then that 52 greetings cards were found – all mis-sorted items including the two test cards.

James said she did not know they were there.

Also found was a card signed by colleagues to a staff member who had a new job. She said she had not finished collecting but the card was prepared six months earlier.

Inquiries showed £30 was donated but had not been passed on. A further £20 had been given by other staff members to James as she continued with the collection.

Royal Mail had not been alerted to a problem at the delivery office because James had targeted greetings cards which had been mis-sorted, the prosecutor said.

James had unsupervised access to all areas and the prosecution said it was a breach of a high degree of trust.

James was convicted at a trial last week of stealing £50 belonging to former employee Craig Robbins between June and December 2018.She was also convicted of stealing a postal packet containing a gift card, theft of the £20 gift card and fraud by using it, and in December stealing 50 postal packets containing greetings cards and money.

Probation officer Tracey Flavell said James accepted limited responsibility and suggested it happened by accident.

She claimed she was sweeping up and found the gift card, intended to put it in the “found” property but it slipped her mind.

It was while she was in Asda that she found it and used it, the court was told.

The other items must have been accidentally placed on her cleaning materials.

James claimed when she left the room she had mistaken the box containing the cards for her own cleaning materials.

While she said she was not under financial pressure she did go on to say that there were some debts including council tax

Bethan Jones, defending, said character references were available. James had lost her job and getting another would be difficult with such a conviction. Her husband was working but the family was in dire straits.