21 August 2007 - A postman from Rock Ferry in Merseyside has been found guilty of dumping and incinerating junk mail.
The 41-year-old postman had taken on extra delivery work to pay off debts. However, because he did not have enough time to make the deliveries he sometimes dumped or burned the items that were allotted to him.
Royal Mail launched an investigation after suspicions had been raised that the postman was not delivering all the advertisements. On two occasions bin bags were recovered from outside his home and burned items were found in an incinerator.
The postman pleaded guilty to two allegations of attempting to damage a total of 5,873 postal packets. He has been ordered to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work and must pay £142 compensation for money paid for deliveries, £300 costs for the Post Office investigation and £100 court costs.
It has been confirmed that all proper mail items have been delivered.