Postman who stashed letters fined

Scott Hamilton pleaded guilty to deliberately delaying 1,514 items

A Midlothian postman who hid more than 1,500 letters he was supposed to deliver has avoided a prison sentence.

Scott Hamilton, 30, who had warned Royal Mail he was struggling to deal with his workload, was fined £1,000 at Edinburgh Sheriff Court.

He had pleaded guilty last month to deliberately delaying 1,514 postal packets between 1 April 2007 and 11 October 2007.

Sheriff Derrick McIntyre said there had been fault on both sides.

But he added: "Being a postman is an important job and this was a breach of trust.

"I don't think you handled it very well but there was no question that packets had been interfered with or opened and money taken out.

"I will deal with this by way of a fine."

'Under pressure'

A passer-by spotted the pile of unopened mail at Hamilton's Gorebridge home in September 2007 and tipped-off Musselburgh sorting office. Investigators found the undelivered mail hidden under an old carpet at the entrance to the property.

Hamilton, a postman for six years before the incident, said he had been "too busy" to deliver the mail to the addresses in Wallyford.

He told police: "I'm quite a good postie. I do all the hours God sends. I was just under pressure."

None of the packages had been opened.

The court was told Hamilton, of Barleyknowe Road, Gorebridge, had lost his job with Royal Mail because of the incident but had since found work as a bus driver.

Solicitor Mathew Patrick, defending, said the offence had been "out of character" for Hamilton who had an "unblemished" record in his six years with the postal service.

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