Charlotte mail carrier and husband guilty of stealing checks, selling them

CHARLOTTE — For over a year, a United States Postal Service letter carrier from Waxhaw used her job to steal checks, then her husband sold them.

The couple pleaded guilty to federal charges on Friday, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Authorities say Kiara Padgett, 29, worked for USPS and stole incoming and outgoing checks from “businesses and individuals.” She would then sell the stolen checks using her husband, Dominique Dunlap, “as her intermediary.”

The checks were stolen from Padgett’s route in west Charlotte, prosecutors said.

One of the people who bought those checks was Terrell Alexander Hager Jr., authorities said. He had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud back in March.

Padgett and Dunlap pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud on Friday. Dunlap also pleaded guilty to four counts of possession of stolen mail.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says the value of the stolen checks was over $8.8 million.

All three of them are facing up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine for the bank fraud conspiracy charge, and Dunlap is facing an additional five years in prison plus a $250,000 fine for each charge of possession of stolen mail.

A sentencing date hasn’t been announced yet.

Last November, Action 9 asked both defendants’ lawyers for their clients’ sides of the story but did not hear back.

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