Representational Photo.
London:
A British court spared an Indian-origin postman jail after he pleaded guilty for dumping hundreds of letters in bins rather than deliver them, saying they were 'too heavy' for him to carry.
Sandeep Singh, 27, has been fined more than 2,300 pounds for refusing to deliver mails 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 Mr Singh had been a postman for only seven months when his actions were discovered in August last year. He was caught out when bin men discovered piles of post, while emptying the bins. He was sacked from his job.
The disgraced postman later told police he was struggling with the heavy bags and regularly took out items to throw away.
Mr 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.
"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.
"He often found the bags so heavy that he took out items he thought were unimportant," The Telegraph reported. "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 these problems in carrying his mailbags." The (break-up) had a traumatic effect on me and I lost over 22 kg," he said.
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