Christopher Tongue was caught after Royal Mail investigators placed him under surveillance and put tracking devices in some of the mail he had to deliver.

Tongue, 36, of Dawlish Avenue, Grange Park, pleaded guilty to three
offences of stealing mail and one offence of delaying 4,784 postal packets between February 10 and April 10 this year.

He was sentenced to do 120 hours unpaid work for the community and
ordered to pay £80 compensation plus £100 costs by Blackpool magistrates.

Sarah Wilkinson, prosecuting for the Royal Mail, said Tongue was employed at the Blackpool delivery office for four months.

Following a number of complaints from customers on Tongue's route that they had not received mail, investigators put the postman under surveillance.

They also prepared four test packets for him to deliver, two of which contained tracker devices.

Tongue was later confronted and searched.

Two shop gift vouchers and two £10 notes which had been in the test packets were found in his clothes.

And when his home was searched 4,784 postal packets were found.

Many of those were so-called "junk" mail which Tongue received extra payment for delivering.

Tongue estimated he had been stealing for a couple of months and had taken about £100.

Mitch Sarangi, defending, said at the time of the offences Tongue, who lived with his partner and their four children, was in serious financial difficulty.

He had fallen behind in his rent and the family was in danger of being evicted.

The money taken was not used for a lavish lifestyle but went towards household expenses.

Tongue's crimes mirror those of Bispham postman Adam Willis, who was charged with hoarding almost 6,500 items, using a council wheelie bin to store the haul.

Willis, 23, said was too tired to complete his round when confronted by post bosses.

He was sacked, given a suspended jail sentence, ordered to pay more than £1,000 costs and told to carry out community service when hauled before magistrates in March.