Dealer swiped £5k stamp from grieving family
A STAMP dealer stole a highly collectible Two Penny Blue worth £5,000 from a grieving family’s collection after they entrusted him to value it for them.
Richard Allcoat then tried to sell the stamp on eBay for £649.99, Perth Sheriff Court heard.
But the 60-year-old, who runs a shop in Kinross, was caught after the family
‘A breach of trust’
noticed the Two Penny Blue was missing from the £23,000 collection.
It had been built up over many years by former Strathclyde Police special constable David Jarvie, who died in April 2020.
The court was told that before taking the collection for valuation, the family had photographed it.
After being offered £5,000 for all of the stamps by Allcoat, David Jarvie Jnr went to pick them up.
But on returning home he noticed the most valuable item was missing. Fiscal depute Sarah Wilkinson said: ‘The accused informed Mr Jarvie he took the stamp as payment for the valuation. He later claimed the stamp had fallen out of the album and he had decided to sell it.’
After Mr Jarvie, from Glasgow, turned up at Allcoat’s home he was given the stamp back and the police were called in.
Allcoat, of Kinross, told officers: ‘My wife is going to kill me if she doesn’t divorce me. I don’t even know why I did it.’
He admitted the theft, which was carried out last September.
Representing himself in court, Allcoat said he had been suffering from depression after losing his parents.
Fining him £2,500, Sheriff Neil Bowie told Allcoat his crime was a ‘breach of trust’. He added: ‘For someone who sells valuable stamps, that is a very dishonest act.’