A Royal Mail spokesman confirmed that the postman was employed at Weymouth Delivery Office.

The spokesman said: “Royal Mail has a zero tolerance approach to any dishonesty and that stance is shared by the overwhelming majority of postmen and women, who are honest and hardworking and who do all they can to protect the mail and deliver it safely.

“We will always seek to prosecute the tiny minority of people who abuse their position of trust.

“Royal Mail customers should be confident in our services and systems, but where we are alerted to problems, either through our own stringent checks or from information supplied by our customers, we take decisive action to investigate.”