A POSTAL worker who stole packages worth around £4,000 over a four year period to feed his gambling addiction has been jailed for four months at Jedburgh Sheriff Court.

Kevan Miller, 47, was told he had been involved in “significant dishonesty” while employed with the Royal Mail at their depot in Hawick.

Defence lawyer Phil Templeton accepted his client had committed a breach of trust while carrying out a public function. He said: “It he has not indulged in self-pity or shirked his responsibility.

“But a gambling addiction had taken hold and once the first instance had occurred it became easier and easier to do it again. It is very difficult to break the debt cycle.” Mr Templeton said Miller had lost his job as a result of his actions and added the first offender could be dealt with by a large number of unpaid hours working in the community as an alternative to custody.

But Sheriff Kevin Drummond told Miller: “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 custodial sentence.” Miller of Galalaw Road, Hawick, pleaded guilty to stealing postal packets at the Hawick delivery office between January 2010 and December last year.