THE LETTER of the law has ruled in favour of a home owner accused of removing 28 mailboxes, damaging 12 and stealing five.
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It all started when Woolomin resident Lucas Charles Oliver wanted to install a new driveway in early 2018.
Mr Oliver sent letters to his neighbours to tell them he would have to remove or replace the letterboxes.
He had Australia Post install a new letterbox at the local shops, before he pulled the others out and took them away in March, 2018.
Police charged Mr Oliver with 12 counts of property damage and five larceny charges. The photo evidence was meagre, Magistrate George Breton said on Friday.
"Am I to speculate he ripped them out violently? Could it have been done with care? I simply do not know," he said.
"Unless the damage is simply the act of removing them from the ground, this would assert loss of operatability [sic] was the damage.
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"If anything there's a much clearer inference there was damage to the ground because of the clumps of dirt on the mailboxes."
All 17 charges against Mr Oliver were dismissed after two days of hearings.