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'Anthrax' scare grocer avoids jail

8/11/2002

A GROCER who played a practical joke on a business associate which sparked a major alarm and disruption in the post office, has escaped imprisonment.

Harry Goldstein, aged 38, of Stanley Road, Broughton Park had put salt in an envelope and cheque sent to Abraham Erlich in the weeks that followed the post-September 11 anthrax scares.

The salt was to denote that the cheque, although late, was well-preserved, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Having been found guilty at Southwark Crown Court of causing a public nuisance, on Friday Judge Peter Fingret ordered Goldstein to carry out 140 hours community service and pay £500 compensation to a postman who discovered the problem. He was also ordered to pay £31,850 costs.

Weeping and hugging members of his family after the decision, Goldstein said: "I am thrilled not to be going to prison."

His solicitor John Perry said: "We have already lodged an appeal against conviction - it must be clear to everyone who has attended this trial that Harry is a kind, loving man with no malice in him. The last 12 months have been a sentence in itself for him and his family. I hope now he will be allowed to carry on with the good work he does."

Goldstein had put the salt in an envelope along with a cheque to his friend Mr Erlich, managing director of J. Schwartz Ltd., of Wembley. He said he thought Mr Erlich would appreciate the joke.

But at Wembley sorting office there was alarm when the salt leaked out of the envelope. It was October of last year, just weeks after the New York terrorist outrage and postal workers had been warned of possible packages of anthrax powder. The Wembley sorting office was evacuated and over 30,000 businesses and households suffered delays as a result.