Postman escapes jail after mail dumping

A POSTMAN who dumped more than 10,000 letters over a six-month period had a four-month jail sentence suspended yesterday as the appeal court judge said the man had learned his lesson.

Daniel O’Regan of 6, Ard Abhainn, Knockraha, Co Cork, had originally pleaded guilty at Cork District Court to three charges under the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act arising out of his actions.

Judge Con O’Leary, at the time, had said: “I am not going to give a licence to postmen to dump mail. He has not put up anything in his defence to take it out of the very serious.”

But Judge Patrick J Moran said yesterday at Cork Circuit Appeals Court: “I get the impression he has learned his lesson. I think, to impose a prison sentence, the people it would affect would be his wife and children.”

Garda Enda Dwyer said the case came to light on March 18, 2009 when over 2,000 letters were found dumped in a field at Ard Abhainn, Knockraha.

The letters were removed to the An Post sorting office at Little Island and an internal investigation was put in place.

Within days, an official complaint was made to gardaí and O’Regan was questioned in relation to the matter.

The postman attended at Cobh garda station where he admitted dumping the mail and told gardaí he had dumped mail previously at Glounthaune.

Almost 8,000 items of mail were recovered from where they had been dumped by O’Regan.

More than 4,000 of the total of over 10,000 items recovered had been damaged by water or were torn or, otherwise, destroyed.

Defence barrister Dermot Sheehan said the defendant had a good work record over the five years before the offences came to light.

“Because of illness of his wife, the responsibility for their young children fell on him. Instead of completing his round, he would go home and do school runs and so on. He tried to cover it up,” the barrister said.

“He has lost his job because of his own conduct.”