A FORMER postman who failed to deliver hundreds of items of mail because he couldn't cope with his job was today given a 200 hour community service order.
Simon Hathaway, 21, of Dean Garden Rise, High Wycombe, was also ordered to pay £600 in costs by Wycombe Magistrates Court.
He was suspended from his duties as a postman on January 18, after a police search of his car revealed hundreds of undelivered mail packages.
More mail was later found at his own address, and at the home of a friend.
In April Hathaway pleaded guilty to intentionally delaying the delivery of 643 postal packets between July 2007 and January 2008. He said it was because he found his job too hard to keep up with.
Chairman of the bench Vivien Morton told Hathaway: "There was a huge number of letters - 643.
"But we did accept that you had no intention of permanently depriving people of their post. You felt the job was too onerous for you."
Hathaway worked for Royal Mail in High Wycombe since April 2007. He both sorted and delivered mail, usually around the Wingate Avenue area of Totteridge.
Zahra Altai, defence, said: "He was wholly inappropriate for this job as a postal worker."
She added that he had "a complete inability to keep on top of the task."
Last month Hathaway was acquitted of the theft of three packages, found opened in his possession at the same time as the undelivered mail.
In that hearing he said: "The pressure was from managers. Every day we went in and we're expected to do everything asked of us."
He added the postal route was hilly, and he often had to carry heavy loads, with nowhere to stop for the toilet. This meant he sometimes stopped, planning to deliver the remaining mail another day.
