A Royal Mail worker who stole bank cards and PIN numbers from private letters at a sorting office has been jailed for 22 months.
Mudathir Khamis, 27, created a ‘fraud bible’ containing personal details, including card and security numbers which he used to purchase thousands of pounds worth of goods.
The fraudster intercepted letters, took photos of cards, withdrew hundreds in cash and spent thousands more at stores including Selfridges, B&Q, Apple and Argos, a court heard.
Khamis stole the bank cards while working for Royal Mail at the sorting office in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, in 2019 and 2020.
He was caught when his bosses became suspicious and found he had kept two undelivered letters. They then reported him to the police.
Officers seized his mobile phone, which contained a catalogue of his crimes in a folder marked ‘fraud bible’.
Khamis of Coventry, was jailed for 22 months after pleading guilty at the court to six charges of theft and 11 of fraud.
Prosecutor Ben Close said that Khamis began working as a postman at the Nuneaton delivery office in December 2019.
"The following month he embarked on a series of thefts of letters containing people's bank cards and their pin numbers and then used them to obtain money or to spend," he said.
In the first instance, Khamis stole a card and a separate letter containing the PIN which he then used to withdraw £250 from an ATM in Derby.
After withdrawing the money, he sent a message to his partner saying he was going to take her out.
In February last year he stole an M&S bank card as well as a letter containing the PIN, and carried out four fraudulent transactions.
He first withdrew £200 in cash from an ATM in Coventry, then spent £1,000 on the card in B&Q, £1,525 in Selfridges and just under £1,200 in an Apple store.
A few months later he stole a card and PIN belonging to a student, and withdrew £210 in cash and bought items worth £472 in Argos.
He also used the card and the student's details to apply for a £4,150 loan from Santander - but left her address on the application which was stopped when correspondence was sent to her.
When Khamis was questioned by Royal Mail investigators they found he had letters containing a New Look account card and PIN on him, but relating to two different addresses.
On his phone was images of other people's bank cards and a picture showing his purchase of 96 three-digit security codes.
Sentencing, Judge Barry Berlin said: "This is high culpability, a breach of a high level of trust and the utterly shameless use of cards and PIN numbers to obtain thousands of pounds in cash and goods."
