A former postal carrier was sentenced to 22 months of house arrest this week for stealing a tonne of mail over a 16-year span.
John Kobitowich, 40, entered guilty pleas to theft of mail and refusing to deliver property as a public servant in May, but was not sentenced until Monday because of delays in receiving several sentencing reports.
Kobitowich will be under complete house arrest for the first 12 months and then a curfew for the remaining 10 months.
The massive theft consisted mostly of advertising mail, but among the almost 160,000 pieces police eventually found in his possession where 6,000 first-class mail items.
Kobitowich was evicted from his Rivercrest apartment on Oct. 15, 2009. When cleaning crews went into the apartment in late November, they found the mail throughout the place.
The apartment managers contacted Canada Post, which called in the RCMP to help with the investigation. Officers then searched a storage locker in Edmonton and collected several boxes that Kobitowich stored at his sister’s home.
Dennis McKay, a Canada Post inspector, read a victim impact statement into the court on behalf of the Crown corporation and said the theft was the biggest he had seen in his career and one of the largest in Canadian history.
McKay said incidents like this shake public faith in the postal system.
“The Canadian public needs to know that mail sent to them, or sent from them will reach their destination.”
Crown prosecutor Jeff Morrison was seeking a sentence of two to four years in prison for the theft and agreed the mail system cannot be tampered with.
“It is an institution of fundamental significance in a civilized society.”
Morrison admitted the case law showed other cases of mail theft had been handled through house arrest, but this one went well beyond any other cases, he said.
He said other case represented a significantly smaller amount of mail then Kobitowich’s theft.
Kobitowich’s lawyer Tim McRory argued the case law clearly pointed to house arrest.
He pointed out, while the other cases involved much smaller amounts of mail, many of them involved actual thefts where credit cards or cheques were taken for profit, which didn’t happen in this case.
“This is not someone who is stealing for profit.”
McRory highlighted Kobitowich’s efforts to gain control over his alcohol addiction and his complete lack of a criminal record.
Morrison quibbled with the idea that Kobitowich has led a clean life, given this incident spanned 16 years.
“This incident actually encompassed almost half of his life.”
In handing down the house arrest sentence, Judge Paul Adilman said he felt Kobitowich had turned things around.
“The chances of this man re-offending are absolutely minimal.”
He said the house arrest sentence would be a clear punishment, while still allowing him to continue work.
“He is going to jail, he is just going to spend it at home.”
The terms of Kobitowich’s house arrest will require him to be in his home 24 hours per day for the first 12 months with exceptions for work and any treatment or counselling his probation officer orders.
In the last 10 months of the sentence he will be under an 8 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. curfew.
He will also have to abstain from alcohol and perform 240 hours of community service work.
