A letter carrier frorm Little Egg Harbor faces up to five years in prison for his role in the theft and conversion of U.S. Postal money orders that investigators say resulted in losses of almost $200,000.

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Jonel Normil, 26, will be sentenced August 16 for his guilty plea to one count of conspiring to embezzle the money orders and convert them for the use of others as well as himself, according to the office of New Jersey U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.

It is the second guilty plea to an illicit money scam entered by a South Jersey postal worker within a week. Last Friday, Earl Champagne of Willingboro admitted his role in defrauding the IRS out of almost $450,000 in illegitimate tax refunds.

Normil admitted stealing hundreds of money orders from the post office in Cape May Court House, where his route was centered, as well as from the post office in Stone Harbor, to which he was assigned mail deliveries and collections.

He gave the money orders to others who imprinted them with cash values of $900 or $1,000, and who then cashed them at post offices in New Jersey, New York and Georgia, or deposited them into bank accounts.

In addition to the possible prison germ, Normil risks a fine as high as $250,000, and has agreed to forfeit $181,000, authorities said.

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