NZ Post parcel sorter sentenced for stealing $3000 worth of Michael Hill Jeweller watches

Elijah Kerr liked to help himself while working as a parcel sorter at NZ Post.

It started with a parcel he picked up from the loading bin at the Blenheim depot. He hid the item - a pet hair removal brush - in his locker.

He got away with it so - he did it again. Before long the 19-year-old contractor had stolen thousands of dollars worth of items, in transit for posting, including watches that belonged to Michael Hill Jeweller.

Now Kerr says it was “the dumbest decision” of his life, by a long shot, and happened at a stage in his life he regrets.

The Blenheim District Court heard on Monday how his undoing was bragging about it to friends. The police soon got wind of what was happening, and Kerr was caught and charged.

Elijah Kerr told the Blenheim District Court he stole for the adrenaline rush, but regrets what he did. Photo / Tracy Neal

While he admitted taking many more items in a further 10 parcels, including an iPhone 12, custom-made jewellery and a hand-held gaming device, the police said there was insufficient evidence to lay further charges beyond those for which he was sentenced today - theft of a parcel containing the watches, worth $3000, and theft of a parcel that contained a $35 pet hair brush.

His lawyer Sarah-Jane Jessop said the teen now had a conviction to clear as he navigated his adult life.

Today he slouched in court, leaning onto the front of the dock, sometimes with his head in his hands as Judge Richard Russell sentenced him to two months of community detention, 80 hours of community work and six months of supervision. He was also ordered to pay $1744 in reparation at $150 per week.

The sentencing comes after the Herald revealed last week that an NZ Post investigation found 14 NZ Post employees have been subject to disciplinary action for mail theft in the past four years.

Kerr worked as a parcel sorter between November 2021 and August 2022. He was employed by an external agency, and worked as a temp, an NZ Post spokesperson told NZME.

At about 4.46am on July 5 last year, Kerr was working at the Blenheim depot on McArtney St when he picked up a parcel from the loading bin and carried it to a bench to examine its contents.

He took the parcel, which contained the pet hair removal brush, to the staff area and placed it in his locker.

Sometime between July 1 and July 31, Kerr used the same method to steal another parcel containing the watches.

The police said today that some of the stolen items, including some of the watches had been recovered. Other items weren’t.

Kerr was wearing one of the stolen watches when he was arrested, and it wasn’t in a state to be re-sold, police said.

Jessop said, in response to Judge Russell’s question over what had happened to the items, that they had either been lost or given away.

Judge Russell said in sentencing Kerr that he had a supportive family and partner, and noted his mother was in court to support him.

He said Kerr’s explanation for the offending was that he had fallen in with a crowd that liked to party and that he got an “adrenaline rush” from stealing, and bragged about it to friends.

Judge Russell acknowledged Kerr’s early guilty plea, and that he was young, remorseful and had endured a bad patch in his life, but also that he now had a blemished history and would have to face the consequences of what he described as a “serious breach of trust”.

“NZ Post and its contractors are entitled to be able to trust their employees and contractors not to steal clients’ parcels,” he said.

“The public is entitled to have confidence that staff won’t steal or interfere with packages and you have badly breached that trust.”

Judge Russell noted that while Kerr had lost his job, he was now employed fulltime elsewhere, and was therefore able to “make good the damage done” by paying reparation.

Judge Russell urged Kerr to develop a better attitude and to show more respect for people around him, and their property.

“You now need to learn from what you have been through, and don’t make the same mistake again.”

Since 2019, private investigators contracted by NZ Post have investigated 22 of its employees. Of those, 15 staff have had the allegations against them substantiated.

Eleven employees were fired without notice, two resigned before the outcome of the process could be delivered, and one was given a final written warning.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.