A “devious” delivery driver who stole £3,000 of goods from his employer and its client, a major fashion retailer, has been spared jail.
Andrew Daniels, 60, who worked as a courier for the delivery firm DPD York, was so brazen he even turned up on a delivery job in designer trainers he had stolen from the retailer, York Crown Court heard.
Prosecutor Thomas Harris said the first thefts occurred on 21 February when Daniels was due to deliver items including two iPhones to Mainline Menswear, the online designer-fashion retailer, at its depot in North Yorkshire.
Daniels drove to the back of the warehouse, went inside and began looking through stock.
“He took out three items of stock, then moved these items to the rear shutter of the warehouse and placed them in a box,” added Mr Harris.
Daniels put the designer goods, worth £224 and including a Lacoste T-shirt, into the back of his van.
He also stole the iPhones worth £2,298 that he was supposed to deliver to the company by hiding them in a returns bag in the back of his van, but Mainline staff realised the mobiles were missing when they were processing deliveries.
Four days later, he went back to the company’s warehouse on another delivery job and to make collections. When he arrived, he began scanning goods and put them in the back of his van.
He took four items, worth over £482, including footwear, underwear and New Balance trainers.
In an act of incredible chutzpah and audacity, Daniels wore those same trainers when he returned to the company on another job that same evening.
Daniels – formerly a resident of Hollicarrs Holiday Park, Escrick, but now living in central York – was ultimately charged with three counts of theft and admitted the offences.
Two of those thefts were the designer items from Mainline Menswear and the other was the theft of the iPhone 17s he was supposed to deliver for DPD.
Previous convictions
He appeared for sentence at the Crown Court yesterday (Friday).
Prosecuting barrister Mr Harris said that Daniels had two previous convictions for theft including theft by employee in 2016.
His solicitor Neil Cutte said the root of Daniels’ offending was drugs. He was now on state benefits having lost his job at the delivery firm.
He said that Daniels was now living in a homeless hostel in Union Terrace, York, and was in dire financial circumstances.
Judge Simon Hickey told Daniels: “You were in a position of a high degree of trust. You have stolen in quite a devious way.
“You stole some valuable items of clothing and this was compounded by your brazen behaviour by turning up in New Balance trainers that were worth more than £200.
“You now find yourself unemployed and living in that hostel.”
However, Mr Hickey said that new legislation meant that any prison sentences of 12 months or less had to be suspended unless there were “exceptional circumstances”.
He said he could find no exceptional circumstances in Daniels’ case and his previous conviction for theft by employee was ten years ago.
Nor could he order compensation to the two companies because Daniels had no money to repay them.
Daniels was given a 12-month jail sentence, but this was suspended for 18 months. He was also ordered to complete a six-month drug-rehabilitation programme.