A POSTMAN has been criticised after handing a letter to a stranger in the street and asking: "Could you deliver this, I'm tired."

Royal Mail chiefs have launched an investigation after the trainee postman got lost on his rounds.

He approached Tom Parnell, 23, complaining he had been on the streets for three hours and was fed-up.

Handing over his last letter he told Mr Parnell: "Could you deliver this to the address on the envelope? I'm tired and I want to go home now."

Mr Parnell walked to Lynsey Mathison's address in Benwell, Newcastle and handed over the letter, which was marked private and confidential.

Lynsey, 20, said: "I'm so pleased he made sure I got it.

"But it's disgusting that this sort of thing goes on. I'm shocked they can go out and do this. The letter was inviting me to an interview for a new job.

"I had been waiting four weeks to hear if I'd got an interview and if I'd not got the letter I would never have even thought of going to the interview"

Bob McGuire, of the Communication Workers' Union, said: "The union is committed to removing all agency workers from the Royal Mail. This is an unfortunate one-off incident."

Royal Mail spokeswoman Wendy Martin said: "Our staff are not supposed to hand out mail on the street, and all Newcastle postmen and women have been rebriefed in light of this incident."