A POSTMAN stole up to £1,000 in birthday money, gift cards and DVDs by pocketing letters over nine months.
Michael Redmond, 57, of Broomfield Road, Chelmsford, who worked at the Montrose Road Royal Mail sorting office near Boreham, admitted three counts of theft of mail at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court.
Natalie McNamee, prosecuting, said: "He worked for Royal Mail for 25 years but they noticed there was an unusually high volume of post going missing from the Chelmsford delivery office and so focused inquiries."
The court heard that Royal Mail planted a special test packet on Thursday, April 9, for Redmond to handle. It never made it to its destination.
Then again, on Wednesday, May 13, investigators fed in a test packet containing two £10 notes, and after spotting Redmond mishandle it, they searched him and found a torn off packet.
After raiding his home they found two DVDs Redmond admitted to stealing, but later in interview he estimated taking up to £1,000 in birthday money and gift cards since August 2014.
Peter Butterfield, mitigating, said the stolen amount was in reality much less, and Redmond would steal no more than ten packets a month.
He told how Redmond, who struggles with alcoholism, receives just £474 pension a month, that his 32-year-old daughter died in August 2012 and that his partner of 12 years left him in 2013.
Mr Butterfield said: "He can't really say, explain or understand why he started offending other than because he was struggling to pay. He has lost his good character and he is ashamed and embarrassed that he appears in court at his age for these offences.
"He accepts that he let down these people that he was delivering to."
Redmond, a single father-of-two and grandfather-of-five, was given a 12-month community order, 120 hours in unpaid work, must pay £500 towards Royal Mail's investigation costs, £120 in prosecution costs, £180 in court costs and £60 towards victim compensation .
Redmond resigned from his role in May after admitting his thefts. He refused to comment.