Postman avoids prison for stealing birthday card cash

A POSTMAN who stole cash from birthday cards will not be jailed but he will have to do a lot of community service work over the next three years.

Judge Con O’Leary said the thefts by Brian Kelleher, aged 29, of 42 Boherboy Close, Lotabeg, Mayfield, Cork, were mean. “He took relatively small matters from people for whom they were big things,” Judge Con O’Leary said.

Judge O’Leary said he had targeted birthday cards for relatively small amounts of money.

The judge said Kelleher could do the maximum number of community service hours in one year — 240 hours — instead of three months in prison this year. But Judge O’Leary said that he was imposing that on the first count of multiple charges and adjourning penalty on the others with a view to imposing further community service orders over the next three years.

In adjourning for three months for the purpose of the report on Kelleher’s suitability for community work, Judge O’Leary also ordered the former postman to gather €50 a week from his social welfare during that period to be paid to the Matt Talbot treatment centre in Douglas, Cork.

The crimes came to light after complaints were made to An Post at the mail centre in Little Island about certain post not arriving at its destination.

Kelleher, who has since resigned from An Post, was targeted in the investigation. Several sealed birthday cards containing cash were logged by An Post for contents. These cards were put into post for Kelleher to deliver to Cork city addresses in the course of his work on September 6, 2010.

“Four of the cards and other items were found to have gone missing on this day,” Inspector Mary King said last week when the matter first came before Cork District Court.

Gardaí were notified and Kelleher was arrested.

Kelleher pleaded guilty to multiple counts of stealing cash from post and related counts of opening a postal packet without permission of the owner.