The pilfering post office employee who pocketed bills and pensions.

The former employee of the post office in Brinzio (who has subsequently been dismissed) has appeared before the judges in the Court of Varese, charged with embezzlement, after secretly stealing one month’s pension of an elderly disabled man (€800), in 2012; she apparently also stole the money from a number of registered letters (€660), and two gas bills (€200) from two families, who were sure that they had paid them, who subsequently had the gas supply cut. According to the charge, the pilfering employee is a 26-year-old woman; according to her lawyer, Oskar Canzonieri, she was simply the unfortunate victim of rather careless management of the money in the office, and of a series of misunderstandings. That may be true, but, in the meantime, the directors of the Italian Post Office, who testified in Court, have confirmed the amounts of money that were missing.

The woman apparently pocketed the money from two €200 bills, in Marchirolo, and the money from a number of registered letters in the same office. Then, at her branch in Brinzio, she committed a particularly nasty crime, she stole one month’s pension of an elderly man, who was not self-sufficient, which was collected every two months by a council employee. The council employee testified and confirmed that only she was authorised to collect the money. In February 2012, she received the money for only one month, instead of two, and was told that the rest had already been given to another person. But the identity of this other person could not be determined. As for the gas payments that left two families without gas, it seems that they were made, and then cancelled; according to the Public Prosecutor, Massimo Baraldo, this operation is tantamount to embezzlement.