A thief is facing sentence for stealing mail being delivered to neighbours in Folkestone.

Trevor Millard was wearing a dressing gown when he was spotted grabbing a bundle of letters and packages as a post lady did her rounds.

Maidstone Crown Court heard Tracey Baker looked out of a window and saw Millard crouching by a bicycle loaded with mail.

He snatched a bundle of letters and packages on August 19 last year and retreated into his flat in Marshall Street.

Miss Baker told a jury: “I saw him crouch down at the front end of the bike. He just scooped all the post out in his arms and ran back in.
“It was less than a minute. It was so quick I couldn’t believe it.”

Police officers went to the flat and Millard went to his bedroom and took out a plastic box containing stolen mail.

But he denied they were anything to do with him.

He claimed he had some people at his flat and “unfortunately some of them were unsavoury”. He refused to name them.

Asked by his lawyer, Alan Birbeck how he knew them, he replied: “A chequered past.” He said they were old acquaintances and he owed them a favour.

He added: “On the morning the police arrived I had just thrown them out. I let them stay the night and they brought mail into my address.”

He said he was shocked when he came out of his bedroom and found his living room “like a sorting office”.

Millard denied theft between August 12 and 19 last year, but was convicted. He was bailed until sentence on October 8.