A Bradford postman was today starting a jail sentence for stealing thousands of pounds from greetings cards and parcels to feed his gambling addiction.

Peter Callaghan, 34, admitted the theft of more than £9,000 from post over two years, Bradford Crown Court heard yesterday.

The married father-of-one, of Saffron Drive, Allerton, was caught on CCTV taking sacks of mail away in his car from the Bradford central sorting office after Royal Mail started an investigation.

He would rip open the cards, steal the money inside and use the cash to play on a gambling slot machine at his work’s canteen, because he had “fallen into the trap” of a serious gambling habit, his barrister John King said in mitigation.

The investigators planted dummy parcels among the normal mail and eventually caught Callaghan in February. He confessed immediately to investigators.

They searched him and found £100 along with a lottery ticket.

Warner Falk, prosecuting said: “He went on to fully admit that he had been opening parcel packs since early 2007 and, during this period, had stolen approximately £9,200.

“On average there had been 100 packs per week and he indicated that he had spent most money on gambling, lottery tickets and food.”

Mr King said a jail sentence would have a “devastating impact” on his family.

He said: “This was very much out-of-character and it was because of gambling. There was a slot machine in the canteen at work and that is where he gambled.”

The theft was caused by a “fault” in his personality, which led him into the “trap of addiction”, said Mr King.

Sentencing Callaghan to a six months’ jail sentence, Judge Peter Benson told him: “You targeted those cards because people, despite warnings, send cash to loved ones through the mail. You pilfered that cash and did it over a period of about two years.”

The judge said there was a “strong public interest in protecting the integrity of the mail” as postal workers were in a “great position of trust”.

He said: “You broke that trust, not only on one isolated occasion but over a period of two years.”

After the case, a Royal Mail 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.”