A postman has admitted stealing cash from dozens of birthday cards and letters. Small money gifts to children, relatives and friends were taken by the postman in Kilkenny city.
Most of the sums involved were just €5 and €10 notes. But he managed to steal €1,000 within three months to feed a gambling problem.
At Kilkenny District Court, John O'Connor of Pococke Valley Upper, Johnswell Road, Kilkenny, pleaded guilty to 11 sample charges of stealing cash from envelopes in the mail.
Suspicion fell on staff in Kilkenny's High Street post office when it emerged that mail was being interfered with in April 2002.
Officials from An Post put four marked birthday cards containing cash into the mail on May 14th of that year.
O'Connor was found to have pocketed the four marked cards and 25 other envelopes.
He admitted interfering with the post for the previous three months and said he had taken about €1,000.
He destroyed some cards and re-posted others that did not contain cash.
Solicitor Mr Matthew Kearney said the 31-year-old spent most of his working life with postal services, initially for seven years in England and then for 6½ years in Ireland.
His client always had an interest in betting but it developed into a serious addiction and he started taking out loans.
He also used money that should have been spent on the family mortgage.
A father of two young daughters, he did all this behind his wife's back and was now extremely contrite. He had attended Gamblers' Anonymous.
An Post allowed him to stay with the postal service but he chose to resign and now had a full-time job elsewhere.
Describing what happened as a serious offence, Judge William Harnett sentenced O'Connor to 190 hours of community service, in lieu of five months in jail.
The judge said O'Connor had jeopardised the postal service's good record and had created a difficult working atmosphere for his colleagues.
"This sort of offence creates unhappiness in the workplace, because everybody is under suspicion until the culprit is caught," the judge said.