Sack for postie who took his job home with him

Mar 7 2008 by Darren Devine, Western Mail

A POSTMAN has been dismissed after failing to deliver up to 200 items of business mail.

The worker, who has not been named, operated at the Colwyn Bay delivery office in North Wales.

Royal Mail are considering whether to bring a prosecution against him. And though they stressed no mail was stolen a statement warned that Royal Mail “always seek to prosecute” in such circumstances.

It is understood the items were recovered unopened from his home and car. Most of the items were business mail, though some may have been destined for residential addresses in Colwyn Bay town centre, said a spokesperson.

All the mail has since been passed on to its intended recipients.

The worker had only been employed by Royal Mail for a couple of weeks before his offences came to light.

A spokesperson said, “A postal worker from Colwyn Bay delivery office has been dismissed after a quantity of business mail was recovered from a private vehicle and a private address by the Royal Mail security team.

“All the mail has now been delivered to business customers affected in the town centre area, including Penrhyn Road and Princess Drive, with a letter of apology, explaining the circumstances of the delay and who to contact should they need further assistance.”

“Royal Mail operates a zero tolerance approach to any dishonesty and that stance is shared by the overwhelming majority of postmen and women, who are honest and hardworking and do all they can to protect the mail and deliver it safely.

“We always seek to prosecute the tiny minority of people who abuse their position of trust.”

One unnamed member of staff said the sacked postman had not been properly trained and was simply taking mail home because there was too much for him to handle.

The member of staff said, “Delivering the business mail is the hardest job as it’s the biggest and heaviest. There’s a huge amount to take around and it was simply too much for him to handle.

“As far as we can make out he wasn’t stealing them for his own benefit, he was just taking home the mail he didn’t have time to deliver.”

The matter was investigated on February 25 before the postman lost his job four days later.

The news emerged on the day the Royal Mail revealed nearly one in five first class letters posted in Mid Wales fails to arrive the following day.

Just 83% of first class stamped mail was delivered the next day on average in Mid Wales and Shropshire from April to December 2007, falling below a target of 93%.

The company is now likely to miss 10 of its 12 annual licence targets when the financial year ends this month, the worst performance since 2003-04 when it missed all of them.

Royal Mail said it blames the figures on last autumn’s strike, which “severely disrupted” the service.