Sorter stole credit cards

Press, 28 June 1989, Page 22

Sorter stole credit cards

A former postal sorter who stole credit cards from the mail and used them to get cash advances from banks was sentenced in the District Court yesterday to six months periodic detention. The defendant, Steven Neil Binnie, aged 24, was placed under supervision for a year and was ordered to make restitution of $l7OO. A condition of his supervision is enrolling in a residential drug rehabilitation programme and completing it satisfactorily.

Judge Erber said Binnie had abused the trust of his employer. Theft of

credit cards was a serious matter.

Binnie appeared for sentence after pleading guilty, part-way through his trial by jury, to five charges of theft of mail containing six credit cards, while he was employed by New Zealand Post; and two charges of using credit cards fraudulently to obtain cash advances from banks.

In one fraud charge the cash advance was $lBOO, in the other $2OO.

Originally, Binnie faced 36 charges of theft of credit cards and 37 charges of using them fraudulently to obtain

cash from various banks. After submissions and evidence heard in the absence of the jury, the Judge discharged Binnie on 66 charges, ruling that a statement Binnie made to the police was inadmissible as evidence. The Crown could not proceed on the majority of the charges and Binnie pleaded guilty to the seven charges for which he was sentenced yesterday.

At the preliminary hearing earlier this year, the police contended that Binnie removed the credit cards while sorting mail at the Christchurch Postal

Centre, and arranged for two other men to take the stolen cards to banks to obtain cash.

Binnie was alleged to have shared in the money they got. The charges related to the period from May 3 to September 23 last year, while he was employed at the postal centre. His counsel, Mr Douglas Taffs, said in mitigation of penalty yesterday that Binnie had pleaded guilty at the first realistic opportunity after the ruling which led to his discharge on most of the charges.

He agreed Binnie had committed a breach of faith with his employer,

involving the integrity of Her Majesty's mail.

He referred to the role of drug-taking in Binnie’s offending and said Binnie had improved his attitude towards overcoming this addiction. Binnie had shown above-average ability at school and was initially regarded by New Zealand Post as a valuable employee. “But temgesics abuse eroded those abilities." Mr Taffs said. Those abilities were still there to be tapped, and with his family’s assistance he was now back on the climb upwards, he said.