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A LAZY postwoman who stored thousands of letters and packages at her home has been jailed for six months today.

Mail bosses were puzzled for months by complaints of missing deliveries in Musselburgh and the surrounding area. It was only when a concerned neighbour reported that Coleen Brodie had piles of post stored in her car that they were able to get to the bottom of it.

A police search of the 39-year-old’s home in Musselburgh turned up almost 6000 undelivered letters and packages, including a handful that had actually been opened.

When quizzed by cops over the missing mail, she admitted it has been laziness on her part and she has opened up some of them because she was hard up before Christmas. She was jailed for six months at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today after pleading guilty previously to delaying the delivery of mail and stealing 12 postal packages.

Sheriff James Scott said: “The public are entitled to be protected from such behaviour from people entrusted to be in charge of their mail”.

Brodie, who now lives at North Grange in Prestonpans, had only been working for Royal Mail for about a year when she began stashing her post. Between December 2004 and March 2005, she kept 5820 postal packages at her home in Musselburgh and in her car.

Brodie said she initially had intended to deliver the post at a later date but let it build up and was forced to stash the packages in her attic, shed and car.

She was caught out in March 2005 when an anonymous caller reported the letters in the car and police carried out a full search of her home. Letters and parcels were found hidden in the attic, in the shed and in the wheelie bin.

A dozen of them had been opened but Royal Mail were able to recover the goods once she was arrested. Her husband, Jim, 50, also worked for Royal Mail, although he was separated from his wife and told police he had no idea that the post was being hoarded. Both were immediately sacked by Royal Mail bosses at the Musselburgh delivery office.

Brodie’s solicitor, Simon Collins, explained: “What began as a delaying tactic with the intention of later completing her rounds ended up with this accumulation of undelivered items in her house.”

Before the thefts took place, Brodie had been running a successful design business while also helping her husband operate a finance company.

But they ran into money problems when Brodie’s business partner died from cancer and she had to deal with a mounting debt. Both companies ran into difficulties and the couple were forced to sell their home.

It was at this “low ebb” that Brodie took on the job at the post office and defaulted in the completion of her daily rounds. Brodie had been living and working at a hotel in Prestonpans before being sentenced yesterday. She is now divorced from her husband.

A spokeswoman for Royal Mail insisted that Brodie’s punishment should reassure customers that the security of their mail is a serious issue. She said: “Royal Mail take the security of mail extremely seriously and it is a criminal offence to delay or tamper with the mail. Anyone caught doing so will be prosecuted.”

HONG KONG (XFN-ASIA) - The Hong Kong government said it recorded a fiscal surplus of 37.1 bln hkd in the month of January, resulting in a 10-month to January net surplus of 42.9 bln hkd.

Expenditure for the first 10 months of the fiscal year to March reached 188.7 bln hkd, while revenue stood at 231.6 bln hkd, it said.

A government spokesman said the surplus in January was mainly due to the collection of tax on profits and salaries.

Fiscal reserves stood at 353.6 bln hkd as of end-January, he added.

roby.lau@xfnc.com

r/net

For more information and to contact AFX: www.afxnews.com and www.afxpress.com

This column was originally published on RealMoney on Feb. 23 at 8:02 a.m. EST. It’s being republished as a bonus for TheStreet.com readers. For more information about subscribing to RealMoney, please click here.

There’s a lot of yawning about oil hitting the highest price of the year. That’s wrong.

There was a tremendous amount of press when oil took out $60 and headed to the low $50s. Now it looks like that occurred strictly because of unseasonably warm weather, not because of a cessation of demand.

I am an out-and-out oil bull for the long term, and I blame that view on doing too much work! That’s right — because of the two stocks I have in Action Alerts Plus.com that are oil-related and because I would like to boost that number, I listen to the calls, and they are all about an inability to find any new oil of consequence coupled with a voracious worldwide demand that hasn’t been quelled by the so-called alternatives.

To me, this $60 level is becoming the norm. If that is the case, you will see a lot more drilling and a lot higher dayrates as it dawns on a lot of companies and nations that even if they have to pay $500,000 dayrates for big rigs, it might very well be worth it.

I also think that those companies that were hoping to make their EPS bottom lines on energy savings are gravely mistaken. It is a testament that the airlines are actually well-run that they aren’t tanking right now, but I would want to ring any profits I had — I agree with Doug Kass on AMR (AMR) , by the way — just to be sure that I wasn’t surprised by a quick spurt to $63-$64, well within the realm of possibilities. In the meantime, many of the integrateds have once again come down to prices that are just too attractive to avoid.

Oil’s done going down big. This is the new level. Get used to it. Adjust portfolios to fit it. Go buy some Halliburton (HAL) .

COMPANY SYMBOL SPLIT ANNOUNCE RECORD DATE PAY DATE
ZOLL Medical ZOLL 2 for 1 1/25/2007 n/a 2/12/2007
American Commercial Lines ACLI 2 for 1 2/6/2007 2/6/2007 2/20/2007
Selective Insurance Group SIGI 2 for 1 1/30/2007 2/13/2007 2/20/2007
Preferred Bank of Los Angeles PFBC 3 for 2 1/25/2007 2/5/2007 2/20/2007
Comcast CMCSA 3 for 2 2/1/2007 2/14/2007 2/21/2007
Trimble Navigation Ltd. trMB 2 for 1 1/25/2007 2/8/2007 2/22/2007
MarkWest Energy Partners MWE 2 for 1 1/25/2007 2/22/2007 2/28/2007
Albemarle Corp. ALB 2 for 1 2/7/2007 2/20/2007 3/1/2007
Jacobs Engineering Group JEC 2 for 1 1/26/2007 2/15/2007 3/15/2007
GameStop Corp. GME 2 for 1 2/12/2007 2/20/2007 3/16/2007
Republic Services RSG 3 for 2 2/1/2007 3/5/2007 3/16/2007
Carlisle Co. CSL 2 for 1 2/8/2007 3/7/2007 3/19/2007
Harsco Corp. HSC 2 for 1 1/23/2007 2/28/2007 3/27/2007
Amphenol Corp. APH 2 for 1 1/17/2007 3/16/2007 3/30/2007
Source: The Online Investor

Exchange-traded fund investors got three more ways to play the currency markets earlier this month.

On Feb. 13, the CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust (FXY) was issued for trading. Then on Feb. 20, the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund (UUP ) and the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bearish Fund (UDN) launched.

The CurrencyShares Japanese Yen Trust is managed by Rydex Investments, and it rounds out Rydex’s portfolio of currency ETFs including the CurrencyShares Euro Trust (FXE) , the CurrencyShares Australian Dollar Trust (FXA) , the CurrencyShares British Pound Sterling Trust (FXB) , the CurrencyShares Canadian Dollar Trust (FXC) , CurrencyShares Mexican Peso Trust (FXM) , the CurrencyShares Swedish Krona (FXS) and the CurrencyShares Swiss Franc (FXF) . The funds measure the value of the foreign currencies in U.S. dollars.

When a foreign currency strengthens, it takes more U.S. dollars to buy one unit of that currency. So if you believe that the U.S. dollar will weaken against one these currencies, buying the ETF for that currency gives you protection from a fall in the value of the U.S. dollar. Of course, if the dollar gains in value, these ETFs are designed to fall.

If you have the notion that the U.S. dollar is going to rise in value, but are unsure as to which foreign currency to bet against, then take a look at the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish Fund (UUP) offered by Deutsche Bank and PowerShares Capital Management. This ETF holds a basket of the six currencies that make up the dollar index: euro, Japanese yen, British pound, Canadian dollar, Swedish krona and Swiss franc.

In the last few days, the dollar has weakened, so investors were better off holding the PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bearish Fund (UDN) that goes up when the dollar sinks. Chalk that up to currency traders agreeing with former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan’s comments on excessive U.S. debt and the potential for a U.S. recession by year-end.

Two sector ETFs also debuted earlier this month: the First Trust Nasdaq-100 Ex-Technology Sector Index Fund (QQXT) and the First Trust Nasdaq Clean Edge U.S. Liquid Series Index Fund (QCLN) .

The Nasdaq Clean Edge U.S. Liquid Series Index Fund tracks 45 clean energy stocks with a sector breakdown of 43.9% semiconductors, 19.6% alternative energy, 13.2% electrical components and equipment, 7.8% electronics, 4.3% manufacturing and 3.9% machine tools.

The fund’s largest holdings include MEMC Electronics (WFR) , Linear Technology (LLTC) and Suntech Power (STP) . Al Gore winning an Oscar for An Inconvenient Truth is a sign that a global focus on clean energy improves the outlook for these types of stocks.

And for the few remaining Luddites, the Nasdaq-100 Ex-Technology Sector Index Fund purports to follow all the members of the Nasdaq 100 that are not classified as technology stocks. On top of the 13.7% retail and 10.4% media concentrations, the fund actually does hold high-tech industries, including 10.4% internet, 9.0% biotechnology, 8.7% pharmaceuticals and 7.8% telecommunications.

Holdings such as Level 3 Communications (LVLT) , EchoStar (DISH) and Garmin (GRMN) seem pretty high-tech to me. Microsoft (MSFT) was correctly excluded, but another software company, Electronic Arts (ERTS) , remains in the basket. Some investment concepts I just don’t get.