A Riverina courier has pleaded guilty to stealing birthday cards, gift vouchers, and cash from unsuspecting families around the region.
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Dale Chand, 30, admitted to pocketing at least 20 mail articles during his four-month tenure with Fast Freight, a Wagga-based courier company regularly contracted by Australia Post to bring mail from around the region to the Wagga depot.
Chand’s job involved travelling from the Wagga depot about six days a week to retrieve mail from Griffith, Narrandera, Collingullie, Leeton, and Coleambally.
In April this year, Australia Post received a number of very similar complaints – customers who had posted birthday cards containing cash and gift vouchers to their loved ones were claiming they never reached their final destinations.
Recognising some clear patterns, Australia Post prepared five decoy letters containing $20 supermarket gift cards and placed them with the outgoing mail in Narrandera when Chand was the only driver on duty.
When Chand returned to the Wagga depot, the mail was searched and the five decoy letters were gone.
Then, in May, Wagga police followed Chand on his afternoon route from Collingullie to Wagga.
When they confronted him, police discovered a blue pillow case in a compartment near the driver’s seat containing more than 20 envelopes from random senders around the region.
Chand denied any wrongdoing and claimed he had been set up; however, on Wednesday in Wagga Local Court, he pleaded guilty to a single charge of dishonestly appropriating mail articles.
Solicitor Rebecca McIlveen said Chand had suffered significant extra-curial punishment after the incident.
“This is the first incident he’s ever had that’s brought him to court, and, at the time, he tells me he had an addiction to methylamphetamines,” Ms McIlveen said.
“He’s been forced to accept the humiliation of relying on social security and he now understands the difficulty of trying to obtain new employment given the disgrace with which he left his previous positions.”
Magistrate Christopher Halburd said that was “hardly surprising”.
“He’s knocked off stuff from Narrandera, Griffith, Coleambally,” he said.
“This offence carries 10 years’ when dealt with on indictment, and 20 per cent of people go to jail.”
Chand will return to court on December 5 to learn his ultimate sentence.
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