Amazon catches DHL delivery driver who stole nearly £25,000 worth of parcels

The former driver narrowly escaped a jail sentence back in March, but now is being forced to pay back the eye-watering £24,859 figure.

Judge David Swinnerton was told during a Proceeds of Crime hearing that Black, from Salford, had benefited from his dishonesty and had realisable assets in the same amount.

He was ordered to pay back the sum within three months or face custody.

Liverpool Crown Court heard that he had been employed through an agency as a delivery driver for DHL for around 18 months.

An investigation was launched in December 2021, when some packages started going missing, the court was told.

“DHL managers were investigating missing parcels sent by Royal Mint that had been going missing since December 2021. Their enquiries highlighted that the parcels were going missing from the Speke depot," said prosecutor Kate Morley.

"They had reviewed CCTV footage from the Speke depot from February and 26th April last year and had seen the defendant acting suspiciously, in that he was picking up small packages from the conveyor belt and looking closely at the labels, which contain sender details and sometimes a description.

"They saw him take items from the conveyer belt without scanning them. As a result of that, the defendant essentially became a suspect."

Black, who admitted to seven counts of theft, was sentenced back in March to 10 months imprisonment, which was then suspended for 12 months.

He was ordered to carry out 15 days rehabilitation activities on top of 70 hours unpaid work.

CCTV footage from a depot in Speke, Liverpool, showed Black taking packages off a conveyor belt.

Investigations revealed that the 55-year-old had been stealing items such as ten Britannia 10oz gold coins, worth almost £15,000.

Also in his haul was jewellery from Bulgaria, worth £23,588.

Prosecution revealed that alongside the missing parcels, a computer tablet belonging to Amazon also disappeared.

Morely said: "An investigations specialist at Amazon contacted DHL and reported that the device, although only valued at £89 held a critical unreleased programme which was of value to the company.

“Its intended recipient was an Amazon employee but it was found that the device had been registered under an email address of julieblack, who is the wife of the defendant. The tablet has not been recovered."