Nadia Oates rifled through post at Slough office to find vouchers and cash
Mother-of-four then bought £3,000 worth of gifts to send home to her family
She wanted relatives to think she was wealthy after 15 years of living in UK
Oates, 58, jailed for eight months after admitting theft in six-month spree
A Royal Mail sorter who stole money from birthday cards and letters to convince her Russian family she was rich has been jailed.
Nadia Oates, 58, had only been working at the sorting office in Slough, Berkshire, for a matter of weeks when she started rifling through packages in a bid to find gift vouchers and money.
The mother-of-four then used the vouchers to buy more than £3,000 worth of gifts, which she sent home to her family in Russia as a way of pretending she was earning a good salary.
When police searched her home, they found 19 unused gift vouchers for shops such as John Lewis and Boots and receipts showing thousands of pounds which had been spent in high street stores. They also found 16 books of first class stamps.
Oates, who had a Russian translator in the dock, has now been jailed for eight months after admitting two counts of theft and one count of opening mail while employed by Royal Mail.
Handing down the sentence at Reading Crown Court, Judge Alexia Durran said Oates had 'fallen into greed borne out of a desire to satisfy family expectations'.
'It was greed, or an inability to face up to your personal situation with your family, that led you to commit these crimes,' she said.
'You caused damage to the Royal Mail and members of the public.'
The court heard how Oates started her six-month crime spree after handling a damaged letter from which a gift voucher fell out.
When she realised she could spend the voucher without it being traced, she began searching through more packages and ripping them open in secret.
The court heard how Oates was only caught when a customer complained about a birthday card which arrived at their home without the expected £40 Love 2 Shop gift voucher.
After an investigation was launched, Oates's fingerprints were found on several torn-up packages which had been discarded in the ladies' toilets.
Thomas Edwards, prosecuting said: 'Opened packets of mail had been found in sanitary bins in the ladies toilet. Some of these packages were found to have her fingerprints on them.
'Vouchers for shops such as Boots, TK Maxx and John Lewis were found as well as receipts for £3,389.36 of goods that were paid for entirely by the use of gift vouchers.'
Nyll Thompson, defending, said Oates 'deeply regrets' what she has done.
'She felt an expectation from her family back in Russia that, after living in the UK for a number of years, she would have a lot of money,' he said.
'She wanted to be able to show them this and found this was a way to send back presents.'
Oates was sentenced to six months in jail for opening the package. She was sentenced to four months in jail for stealing the Love 2 Shop voucher and eight for stealing 'an unknown amount of vouchers, cash, gift cards and stamps'.