Postman jailed for hoarding thousands of letters

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A POSTMAN who hoarded nearly 35,000 letters and packets at his home instead of delivering them to customers has been jailed for eight months.

Royal Mail inspectors discovered sacks and bundles of undelivered mail at John Callaghan’s home in Redhill, Guildford Crown Court heard on Thursday.

Michael Newbould, prosecuting, said none of the 34,257 items had been tampered with.

"They had just been allowed to pile up, unopened, for up to four-and-a-half years. It's a most unusual case," he said.

Keith Goodhand, defending, said: "My client was unable to cope with the volume of mail he was expected to deliver.

"The fact that the undelivered mail represented only around two per cent of the mail actually delivered by the defendant gives some idea of the onerous workload faced by many postmen."

Callaghan, 51, of Colesmead Road, Redhill, admitted two charges of unlawfully delaying mail.

The court was told that the offences related to a period between December 1, 2004 and April 16, 2009, when Callaghan was suspended from his job.

Mr Newbould said: "The Royal Mail received a telephone call saying that there was a large volume of mail in a garage at Redhill - which subsequently turned out to be the address of Mr Callaghan."

Investigators visited the defendant's property and found a total of 1.5 tons of letters and packets stashed there, the court heard.

Mr Goodhand said his client, who had never been in trouble with the law before, had resigned from his job after the offences came to light.

"At first it was just a few packages that were not delivered. Then it snowballed considerably," he said.

Sentencing the defendant, Judge Christopher Critchlow said: "It was a breach of trust."

"The inconvenience to the public must have been enormous. And it went on for a prolonged period of time."