Postman charged with mail thefts
A FORMER Ipswich postman has been charged with stealing or delaying nearly 70,000 postal packages.
Colin Adwent
A FORMER Ipswich postman has been charged with stealing or delaying nearly 70,000 postal packages.
Richard Appleby, of Cauldwell Hall Road, is accused of two charges relating to post which is said to have gone missing over a four-and-a-half-year period.
One of the accusations relates to the theft of 916 postal packages belonging to Royal Mail Ltd.
The allegation is that this took place between April 19, 2004, and November 7, 2008.
No value has been put on the items relating to this accusation.
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The second charge laid against Appleby is that while being engaged as a postal operative he breached his duty by delaying 61,497 addressed postal packages. A further 6,874 door-to-door postal packages, commonly known as junk mail, are also said to have been delayed.
Again, no value has been attached to these items. The alleged delay is also said to have taken place between April 19, 2004, and November 7, 2008.
The total number of items involved in the two charges comes to 69,287.
Appleby is due to appear at South East Suffolk Magistrates court next week.
The 36-year-old was arrested in November last year on suspicion of theft.
Items including wedding invitations, credit card statements, solicitors' letters and even a confirmation of a place to study at Cambridge University were among those returned to people living in the Purdis Farm Lane and Bucklesham Road areas of Ipswich.
They are believed to be among those which are alleged to have been taken or left undelivered.
Appleby returned to Ipswich police station yesterday when his bail expired.
Following a three-month inquiry by Royal Mail investigators based in Harlow, Essex, he was charged shortly before midday.
Appleby is now scheduled to make his first appearance in court at a hearing before Ipswich magistrates on Wednesday, February 25.
