A DEPRESSED postman who failed to deliver more than 2,400 letters and leaflets, because he could not cope with his round, has been given a conditional discharge by the courts.

Andrew McCardle, 21, of Derwent Crescent, Hamsterley, near Consett, County Durham, faced a maximum sentence of two years in prison, after admitting intentionally delaying the post last June.

Durham Crown Court heard that the Royal Mail launched an investigation after a council worker found 170 items dumped in a lay-by rubbish bin, at Edmudbyers.

Mail investigators searched his car and found a further 1,721 items, including election leaflets.

Steve Rich, defending, said: "This isn't a case of a dishonest man.

"At worst, it is a case of an incompetent one.''

He told the court that McCardle had started working as a postman based at the Derwentside sorting office in 2002, but in March last year the switch from two deliveries a day to one had a dramatic affect.

Mr Rich said that McCardle had previously had a super-visor sympathetic to his difficulties, but a less sympath-etic person had taken over the job.

He had been suffering from depression at the time and was now getting help.

He had no previous convictions.

Passing sentence, and ordering McCardle, now unemployed, to pay £400 costs, Judge Peter Bowers said the case was at the "lowest end'' and that there was no dishonest or malicious motive.