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Post Office investigator caught stealing mail
10:20pm Thursday 3rd July 2008
A Royal Mail investigator hired to solve thefts in by his colleagues instead pocketed cash and valuables from parcels.
Stephen Matthews, 39, helped himself to special delivery bags containing goods worth almost £2,000 which should have been evidence in his own inquiries.
Wedding rings, passports and airline tickets ended up stashed under his desk instead of being delivered to the people they were posted to.
Matthews, who claims he committed the crimes because he ran up an £80,000 debt on credit cards, could be jailed when he is sentenced at Lewes Crown Court.
Fellow investigators caught him in the act when they searched his desk at the North Road sorting office in Brighton and found 35 special delivery and recorded delivery postal packets.
Staff had became suspicious when Matthews confided to them that he was heavily in debt.
Matthews, of Greenacres, Shoreham, admitted theft and fraud at Brighton Magistrates' Court today.
Your Say YourArgus
not happy, shoreham says...
9:54am Fri 4 Jul 08
It's honestly beyond belief
bobby bigballs, Brighton says...
10:30am Fri 4 Jul 08
Roy Hills, Heathfield says...
10:40am Fri 4 Jul 08
sandi-pandi, brighton says...
12:31pm Fri 4 Jul 08
K, says...
1:35pm Fri 4 Jul 08
Andrew, says...
2:16pm Fri 4 Jul 08
Roy Hills wrote:Please do not tar all people who work for Royal Mail with the same brush. There are many Honest people who work for the company and Many who would report thier own friends if they thought they were stealing from peopoles mail.
Try posting an obvious birthday card with a fiver inside. 70% chance of it never arriving! I notice that banks now have to use couriers as Royal Mail has such sticky fingers!
disgruntled, hove says...
6:31pm Fri 4 Jul 08
Tainting the good ones who do not fall into this category.
Jan, Hove says...
12:46pm Mon 7 Jul 08
Ryan G, London says...
5:05pm Wed 9 Jul 08
simon, says...
12:06am Thu 10 Jul 08
not happy wrote:I think you might have that wrong!! If you go with Royal mail from the collection they will handle it right through.. And your very complaint IS exactly what you will get if our postal system is privatised!!!! ie one blameing the other for their slack efforts ie "we didnt collect" or " we didnt sort" or "We not responsible for delivery"!!!!! BE WARNED!! I know you wont... XXX
as somebody who runs an ecommerce company I\\\\\\\'ve lost so much mail in the last 12 months that it\\\\\\\'s been a struggle to stay afloat. I\\\\\\\'ve complained to royal mail a number of occassions only to be told that because royal mail handle the collection of the mail and the delivery, but not exclusively the bit in the middle, that other companies may be responsible for my mail going missing. while I\\\\\\\'m being fobbed off with that BS from royal mail the very people who are meant to get to the bottom of the problem have their own hands in the till! It\\\\\\\'s honestly beyond belief
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JD, btn says...
7:57am Fri 4 Jul 08
80000 = no way out! PS How does someone who works for the post office get that much credit...... CC companies only have themselves to blame! B********