A FOOTSORE postal worker who dumped hundreds of letters at an incinerator rather than deliver them to people's doors betrayed a position of trust, a court heard.

Stewart Anthony Laing, of Ivy Close, Norton, near Stockton, still had 370 items of post to deliver when he decided he had had enough. Sam Faulks, prosecuting, told Teesside magistrates that the 26-year-old part-time postman had responsibility for Billingham Road, in January this year, a round he shared with full-time postman Craig Brown, 25, of Junction Road, Norton.

Mr Faulks said: "He and Craig Brown thought it was getting rather late and rather cold, and they decided they were not going to deliver those 370 items of post and were going to leave it until the next day. The post went into the back of Craig Brown's car."

Mr Brown drove the car to the incinerator at Stockton.

Laing's solicitor, Ruth Phillips, said it was only when Brown removed his Royal Mail top and busied himself removing something from the boot that Laing "had a good idea what was happening, but took no action to stop it".

"Mr Laing accepts there was nothing he did to try to rectify matters at that stage," he said.

Days later, Cleveland Police contacted the Royal Mail to say a quantity of undelivered post had been retrieved. Inquiries led to Laing.

Dr Iftikhar Lone, chairman of the Bench, told Laing: "You were in a position of trust when you did this. You have left everyone down by the activities of that day.''

Laing was given a community punishment order of 180 hours and ordered to pay £300 costs. He was charged with a breach of the Postal Services Act 2000.

Dr Lone told him: "Had you not pleaded guilty, you would certainly have got custody."

* Brown was last month given a community punishment order of 160 hours and ordered to pay £250 costs by magistrates.