Delivery Driver Steals $14,000 Worth of Booze in ‘Sophisticated’ Scam

An employee moves a pallet of Hawesko wine cartons through a hall at the International Wine Logistics logistics centre of wine merchant Hawesko. A delivery driver stole more than £12,000 worth of spirits and wine. (Photo: Marcus Brandt/picture-alliance/dpa/AP Images)

A British delivery driver stole over £20,000 ($24,360) worth of goods, including over £12,000 ($14,616) of wine and spirits that he was supposed to deliver to businesses, the Birmingham Mail reported.

The thief, former soldier Paul McGauley, was employed by an agency to work for the logistics company ICT Express.

Prosecutor Timothy Sapwell said McGauley, 50, was supposed to deliver the goods to customers but instead made unscheduled stops during his delivery and forged signatures in an attempt to “cover his tracks.”

McGauley stole the £12,000 of wine and spirits, which were supposed to go to the department store Selfridges, on March 20.

A tracking device on McGauley’s vehicle revealed he made two unscheduled stops when the booze had been stolen.

On May 3, McGauley was scheduled to deliver two pallets worth nearly £2,500 ($3,045) to a company, but neither pallet arrived. McGauley later gave a delivery note sporting a forged signature appearing to belong to the customer to his employer.

Sapwell said that two empty pallets were later found behind a supermarket. Three days later, McGauley failed to deliver two speakers worth £3,000 ($3,655) to a shop and made an unscheduled stop at his home.

On May 22, vacuum cleaners worth almost £3,000 were stolen after McGauley made an unscheduled stop in Smethwick.

McGauley had previously admitted to four charges of theft and three charges of fraud and had been convicted nine times for 17 offenses.

McGauley was jailed for three years. Sentence Recorder Abigail Nixon said that because of his prior record, she found it “surprising” he had obtained employment that required him to be trusted. Nixon also noted that McGauley’s thefts were funding a drug addiction.

“This is a sophisticated set of offences with you in a position to collect the goods and take them straight to other people involved,” Nixon said. “You then covered your tracks by false receipts signed by genuine people. You were a leading member of a group. Others could have been blamed for this.”

Zaheer Afzal, who defended McGauley in court, said that the defendant had rehabilitated himself since the offenses. Afzal noted that McGauley He said had joined the army when he was 17 and had done four tours of duty, including in Iraq and Northern Ireland, and had “done a lot of good for his country.”

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