Thieving postman is jailed for two years (From Warrington Guardian)

Thieving postman is jailed for two years

A NANTWICH postman has been jailed for two years after stealing more than 130,000 undelivered letters, packages and leaflets.

Father-of-two Nicholas Fryer admitted stealing 5,577 Royal Mail postal packages belonging to the Royal Mail and 127,918 other postal packets between January 1999 and May 2004.

Fryer, aged 31, of Audley, was caught after Royal Mail internal investigators became suspicious of his activities.

After raiding his house they found thousands of undelivered letters some posted as far back as 1999.

Prosecutor Errol Ballantine told the court: "His house was bulging with mail. He filled his shed, loft and wardrobes and the items of mail were very conspicuous."

He revealed how Fryer's caravan was searched on April 30 and 5,577 Royal Mail postal packets and 4,444 items of junk mail were discovered.

This led to investigators confronting Fryer on his postal round the following week and finding four opened packages containing a DVD and a child's sweatshirt.

When they later searched his home they found it littered with the equivalent of 172 bags of post, which he had collected over the five-year period.

His house contained around 116,000 leaflets and junk mail, 17,000 items of ordinary mail and more than 500 packets had been opened.

Mr Ballentine added: "He was selecting certain items of post, such as postcards and mail order. He opened items he thought were valuable.

"These packages contained items of undoubted financial and sentimental value."

Joanne Wallbanks, defending, said Fryer couldn't cope with his workload and the amount of mail he had to deliver -so he began to store it.

She said: "He realises now he should have gone to his employer and explained the difficulty he was having in delivering the mail in the allotted time available.

"It was a difficult time for him. His wife had suffered with various illnesses and it put a great deal of strain on him.

"He is extremely remorseful and deeply sorry for the inconvenience he has caused to his employers, his family and friends. He knows he has let them down."

Fryer, a postman since 1995, was also sentenced after pleading guilty to three counts of false accounting and three counts of obtaining a money transfer by false deception.

These additional six charges relate to falsifying documents for door-to-door control sheets.

He pocketed almost £2,000 from these falsely completed sheets, which entitle postmen to extra payment on top of their normal wage for the delivery of junk mail.

nantwich@guardiangrp.co.uk