Postie 'weighed down with junk mail' caught binning items

[POSTMAN]

Postal worker 'weighed down with junk mail' caught binning items

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A postal worker dumped items he was meant to deliver because he was weighed down by "junk mail".

Iain Gallagher was spotted by a member of the Royal Mail investigations team sorting through bundles of mail and putting it into bins.

The 51-year-old was ordered to perform 135 hours of unpaid work after he admitted stealing postal packages at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday.

Fiscal Depute, Kirsty Anderson, told Sheriff Alastair Noble that when Gallagher was questioned by the Royal Mail investigator, he admitted he had been "jettisoning junk mail".

Defence solicitor, Steve Donald, said that all but three items disposed of by his client had been junk mail: "The type we are all inundated with".

The three items, Mr Donald added, were packages addressed to people that Gallagher knew no longer lived at the addresses. Instead of bringing them back so they could be returned to sender, he did not open them, but just tore them up.

Gallagher, of Edinburgh’s Hyvot Green, resigned his job of 15 years after admitting disposing of the items between May 1, 2011, and June 14 last year.

Mr Donald said that in the months leading up to the offence, Gallagher had been in extremely ill health, physically and mentally.

Alcohol had also played a part in his illness, according to Mr Donald, but he had not been drunk when he committed the offence. His client, he added, was now receiving alcohol counselling.

Mr Donald continued: "He found himself unable to complete his rounds in time because he was inundated by junk mail".

Sheriff Noble told Gallagher he had been entrusted to deliver all mail, including brochures, although, as he was a first offender and not in the best of health, he could deal with the matter with a punishment other than imprisonment.

[bunkerland]

Postal worker 'weighed down with junk mail' caught binning items

http://news.stv.tv/scotland/209261-post ... ing-items/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;



The 51-year-old was ordered to perform 135 hours of unpaid work

Big deal,that just sounds what most managers in RM try to get part-timers and new starts to do!