THE early start, bad weather and heavy bag - it all got too much for one Poole post-man undertak-ing his inaugural delivery round.

Halfway through his first - and last - day on the job, an agency postman decided delivering hundreds of letters was just too much like hard work.

And instead of completing his round on Turlin Moor, he chose to ditch the contents of his mail bag in the wheelie bin of Egmont Road resident Marion Hansford.

Marion, 43, said: "My daughter told me she had seen the postman dump something in the bin but I didn't think much about it. I figured he had just used it to get rid of some rubbish."

But when she checked, she found her bin brimming with several hundred letters, postcards and packages.

She said: "After bringing it in, I had a three to four foot pile of post on my table, it even included recorded packages that people have paid extra for.

"I was so cross, I can't understand how he could just dump that much post.

"People are waiting for important letters and for personal items, and to think they could end up in someone's bin is just wrong."

The full-time mother-of-seven contacted the Royal Mail who promised to look into it and call her back to arrange to collect the post.

But it took Royal Mail 24 hours to pick it up and reunite people with their missing post.

Richard Hall, a spokesman for Royal Mail, said: "Unfortunately this was a temporary employee recruited through an agency, it was his only day with us."

An interview had been held with the agency and the person responsible, he added.

"We apologise to all the residents affected."

Do you know who the postman is, or have you experienced a similarly bad first day at work? Call our newsdesk on 01202 296502.