Hawick package theft postal worker jailed
A postal worker who stole packages worth thousands of pounds to pay for his gambling addiction has been jailed.
Kevan Miller, 47, was told he had been involved in "significant dishonesty" while employed with the Royal Mail at their depot in Hawick.
He admitted taking packages worth around £4,000 between January 2010 and December last year.
Sheriff Kevin Drummond said he saw no alternative to a custodial sentence and jailed him for four months.
Defence lawyer Phil Templeton told Jedburgh Sheriff Court his client accepted he had committed a breach of trust.
'Volume of dishonesty'
He said that it was "very difficult to break the debt cycle" of a gambling addiction.
He said Miller, of Galalaw Road, Hawick, had lost his job as a result of his actions and argued the first offender could be dealt with by a large number of unpaid hours working in the community as an alternative to custody.
However, Sheriff Drummond told him: "You worked for the Royal Mail for a period of 10 years and the plea of guilty tendered to this complaint shows that for four of those years you were involved in significant dishonesty.
"The packages were frequently of low value but it is the volume of that dishonesty which resulted in something in excess of a £4,000 loss.
"I do not consider I can impose anything else other than a a custodial sentence."