Three men accused of Royal Mail offences have cases sent to Crown Court
Three men accused of offences at the Royal Mail have had their cases sent to the Crown Court.
The accused are Samuel Christie, Barry Falls and David Kinnear. The charges relate to between October 2020 and October 2023.
Samuel Christie (46), of Clare Heights in Ballyclare, faces four charges - two counts of fraud by abuse of position at the Royal Mail in that he allegedly 'caused to be paid, a leadership uplift' and that he 'caused to be paid, overtime hours that had not been worked'.
He is also charged with conspiracy to commit fraud. He faces a fourth charge - false accounting. It is alleged he 'destroyed, defaced, concealed or falsified a certain account record or document, namely leave records which had been made or required for an accounting purpose'.
Kinnear (56), whose address was given as Westbourne Avenue in Ballymena, and Falls (52), of Kilmakevit Square, Cullybackey, each face two charges - conspiracy to commit fraud by abuse of position 'namely that you would be party to an arrangement by which you were paid overtime hours that you had not worked'.
The second charge is that they 'dishonestly failed to take such steps as were reasonable in the circumstances to secure that a credit that you knew or believed to be wrong which had been made to an account kept by you or in respect of which you had a right or interest had been cancelled'.
The three men were side by side in the dock at Ballymena Magistrates Court. A prosecutor submitted there is a case to answer and there were no contrary submissions from defence representatives.
Each defendant was given continuing bail - in the sum of £500 with a condition not to contact each other. The cases were sent to Antrim Crown Court for arraignment on September 16.