Sandeep Singh, 27 , has been fined more than 2,300 pounds for refusing to deliver mail on his daily rounds in Nottingham because he was too weak to carry around his Royal Mail bag following the break-up with his girlfriend.
The court heard Singh had been a postman for only seven months when his actions were discovered in August last year. He was caught out when binmen discovered piles of post when emptying the bins and he was sacked from his job.
Singh was spared jail after he pleaded guilty to theft and delaying the delivery of post at Nottingham Magistrates' Court yesterday.
He was ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work and must pay court costs of 2,302 pounds, compensation of 22.32 pounds and a victim surcharge of 60 pounds.
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"Theft and deprivation of any sort is not pleasant for anybody. You were paid to do a job which you failed to do. However, we don't believe that the acts you carried out were of the sort we often hear of, where it is a malicious act in order to deprive people of money," said sentencing, chairman of the bench Geoffrey Walker.
"Royal Mail has a zero tolerance approach to any dishonesty.The safety and security of mail is of the utmost importance to this business and Royal Mail will not allow the actions of any individual to damage the good reputation of our thousands of hard-working postmen and women, said a spokesperson from the Royal Mail.
None of the 279 letters Singh failed to deliver were opened and the postie made no financial gain from the thefts.
"I broke up with my girlfriend and lost a large amount of weight, which contributed to this problems in carrying his mailbags.