Identity fraud fears after spate of post bag thefts

GARDAÍ are investigating whether a criminal gang is behind a recent spate of mailbag thefts from postal staff on their rounds and the incidents are part of an organised effort to acquire personal details for the purposes of committing identity fraud.

In Co Clare in the past two months there have been four such incidents, and one line of inquiry is that the same gang, possibly from Limerick, is involved.

In August, a postman was targeted twice in a week by thieves as he was doing his rounds in Shannon. In the first incident on August 19, a single bundle of mail was taken from a bag which had been left on the postman’s bicycle while he was delivering in the Ard na Greinne area of the town. A week later at Rineanna View, also in Shannon, a man wearing a high-visibility jacket approached the same postal worker and grabbed the mailbag from his shoulder before running away.