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A delivery driver working for Evri has been arrested on suspicion of stealing more than 120 parcels in the days before Christmas.

The 24-year-old man was detained on Monday after managers became suspicious about orders not being completed in Southampton.

Police found 40 parcels when they arrived at an address in Bassett, a suburb north of the city centre, to make the arrest on Monday. He remains in custody.

A spokesman for Evri said the driver was a sub-contractor.

Hampshire Constabulary said the parcels were unlikely to reach their intended recipients before Christmas Day.

“Our investigators will be working hard this week to track their original destinations,” a force spokesman added.

An Evri spokesman said: “A third­-party con­tractor was sup­port­ing with deliv­er­ies in the area, but they didn’t meet our stand­ards, and so they will no longer be deliv­er­ing on behalf of Evri.”

The arrest came after another Evri delivery driver in the area appeared to be caught on a doorbell camera taking a parcel from a family’s doorstep.

Toni Fryer, 47, said she would “never use Evri again” after her son’s Christ­mas present dis­ap­peared from her home in Tims­bury, Hamp­shire, on Dec 15.

Footage showed a woman delivering two parcels from a van before taking a third package that had been delivered earlier that day and hiding it under her jacket.