A former post office employee has been charged after allegedly stealing an estimated $20,000 worth of cigarettes from mail consignments in Sydney.
In October 2019, officers from Redfern Region Enforcement Squad (RES), with assistance from Australia Post, commenced an investigation following reports a number of mail consignments had been stolen from a post office in Strawberry Hills.
Following extensive inquiries, officers arrested a 57-year-old man following a vehicle stop on Elizabeth Street, Sydney, just after 6pm on Thursday 23 January 2020.
During a search of the vehicle, investigators seized four cartons of cigarettes and mail consignments containing camera equipment and other items.
Shortly after, Redfern RES investigators, with assistance from the Public Order and Riot Squad, executed a search warrant at a unit on Bourke Street, Waterloo.
Officers seized 96 cartons of cigarettes, mail consignments containing a printer, barbeque, and towel rack, as well as 45 items of clothing, a ukulele, perfume, a suitcase and other personal items.
The man, who is a former post office employee, was taken to Mascot Police Station, where he was charged with two counts of appropriate mail-receptacle, dispose property-theft (serious indictable offence), goods in personal custody suspected being stolen, goods suspected stolen in/on premises, and deal with property proceeds of crime.
It will be alleged in court that the man stole several mail consignments, including parcels containing an estimated $20,000 worth of cigarettes, between August 2019 and January 2020.
He was granted strict conditional bail and is due to appear at the Downing Centre Local Court today (Thursday 13 February 2020).
