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Newman! Again! AGAIN!
Jan. 26th, 2010 10:50 amSore knees or not, the mail just kept on coming....
Former letter carrier avoids jail time in massive mail theft
By Betty Ann Adam, The StarPhoenix January 26, 2010 7:53 AM
The largest recorded mail theft in Canada netted a former postal employee a six-month conditional sentence Monday in Saskatoon provincial court.
David Mah, 33, was a relief carrier for Canada Post for most of the period between 2001 and 2008 when he stashed between 17,100 and 22,800 letters in the garage of his rented house, Crown prosecutor Frank Impey said at a sentencing hearing.
"The breach of trust to the employer and the public was unlike any other in the history of Canada. . . . The numbers are staggering," Impey said.
Mah was also ordered to do 100 hours of community service.
Impey gave Judge Bria Huculak photographs of 57 clear plastic boxes, each holding 300 to 400 pieces of addressed mail.
The mail was sent to Vancouver to be cleaned but the process was unsuccessful -- the mouldy mail was deemed a health risk to Canada Post employees and was destroyed, Impey said.
The Crown could not say exactly how many letters went undelivered because many had deteriorated in the damp garage.
Police found six heavy canvas bags of mail, two garbage bags full and nine boxes full. Un-addressed mail, such as flyers and mass mailouts, were thrown away and not counted, making it impossible to say exactly how many pieces of mail went undelivered.
Some of the canvas bags were so rotted, their contents fell out of their envelopes, including numerous plastic cards, such as credit cards, bank cards, health cards, treaty cards, telephone calling cards and shoppers' points cards.
Mah was a part-time, casual letter carrier for Canada Post when he sometimes stashed the bags and bundles in his garage.
[snip]
He sometimes sorted through the mail and delivered letters he deemed to be important. Envelopes from Canada Revenue Agency were among those that were not delivered.
Mah had already been stashing mail sporadically for five years by the time he was hired as a full-time carrier in 2006. After a year with Canada Post he was moved to an inside job because of his bad knees, court heard.
There were never any complaints about missing mail, possibly because Mah was not the regular carrier, Impey said.
When he moved out of the house in 2008, the landlord broke a lock off the garage door and discovered the stolen mail.
"The integrity of the Canadian postal system depends on the honesty of its employees," Impey said.
Mah was immediately fired. In a pre-sentence report, Mah was asked what he would do in the future to avoid committing such a crime, to which he responded, "Not be so lazy in the future."
Mah always intended to finish delivering the letters and never used the mail for his personal benefit, Wood said.
Huculak noted Mah did benefit because he got paid for work he didn't do.
He was under tremendous stress and the fact his father is a proud postal employee added to his shame, Wood said. Mah had no criminal record and pleaded guilty and saved the Crown the cost of a trial, she said.
Wood asked for a conditional discharge for Mah, but Huculak said that would be inappropriate.
© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix
***
Hey now, this wasn't the largest recorded mail theft in Canadian postal history, this was... over 100,000 pieces of mail: http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/193911.html. And again, it wasn't actual theft in that the mail was stolen and used in a criminal way, it was just that the carrier was too lazy to do his job.
Former letter carrier avoids jail time in massive mail theft
By Betty Ann Adam, The StarPhoenix January 26, 2010 7:53 AM
The largest recorded mail theft in Canada netted a former postal employee a six-month conditional sentence Monday in Saskatoon provincial court.
David Mah, 33, was a relief carrier for Canada Post for most of the period between 2001 and 2008 when he stashed between 17,100 and 22,800 letters in the garage of his rented house, Crown prosecutor Frank Impey said at a sentencing hearing.
"The breach of trust to the employer and the public was unlike any other in the history of Canada. . . . The numbers are staggering," Impey said.
Mah was also ordered to do 100 hours of community service.
Impey gave Judge Bria Huculak photographs of 57 clear plastic boxes, each holding 300 to 400 pieces of addressed mail.
The mail was sent to Vancouver to be cleaned but the process was unsuccessful -- the mouldy mail was deemed a health risk to Canada Post employees and was destroyed, Impey said.
The Crown could not say exactly how many letters went undelivered because many had deteriorated in the damp garage.
Police found six heavy canvas bags of mail, two garbage bags full and nine boxes full. Un-addressed mail, such as flyers and mass mailouts, were thrown away and not counted, making it impossible to say exactly how many pieces of mail went undelivered.
Some of the canvas bags were so rotted, their contents fell out of their envelopes, including numerous plastic cards, such as credit cards, bank cards, health cards, treaty cards, telephone calling cards and shoppers' points cards.
Mah was a part-time, casual letter carrier for Canada Post when he sometimes stashed the bags and bundles in his garage.
[snip]
He sometimes sorted through the mail and delivered letters he deemed to be important. Envelopes from Canada Revenue Agency were among those that were not delivered.
Mah had already been stashing mail sporadically for five years by the time he was hired as a full-time carrier in 2006. After a year with Canada Post he was moved to an inside job because of his bad knees, court heard.
There were never any complaints about missing mail, possibly because Mah was not the regular carrier, Impey said.
When he moved out of the house in 2008, the landlord broke a lock off the garage door and discovered the stolen mail.
"The integrity of the Canadian postal system depends on the honesty of its employees," Impey said.
Mah was immediately fired. In a pre-sentence report, Mah was asked what he would do in the future to avoid committing such a crime, to which he responded, "Not be so lazy in the future."
Mah always intended to finish delivering the letters and never used the mail for his personal benefit, Wood said.
Huculak noted Mah did benefit because he got paid for work he didn't do.
He was under tremendous stress and the fact his father is a proud postal employee added to his shame, Wood said. Mah had no criminal record and pleaded guilty and saved the Crown the cost of a trial, she said.
Wood asked for a conditional discharge for Mah, but Huculak said that would be inappropriate.
© Copyright (c) The StarPhoenix
***
Hey now, this wasn't the largest recorded mail theft in Canadian postal history, this was... over 100,000 pieces of mail: http://ltmurnau.livejournal.com/193911.html. And again, it wasn't actual theft in that the mail was stolen and used in a criminal way, it was just that the carrier was too lazy to do his job.
