AFTER being sacked from the job he loved, a popular Craven postie is back on his patch with a pronounced spring in his step.

In November last year Bob Dewhirst, 58, a familiar face around Gargrave for the past four years, lost his job for failing to deliver three items of junk mail.

They had been left in his bag for delivery the next day because his mother had been taken ill in Shrewsbury the day before with a suspected thrombosis.

Mr Dewhirst, a former textile production manager, who lives in Steeton, explained: "I was desperate to get back home to find out how she was, and also to see if my wife was alright because she was ill too."

The items were not franked letters, but the circular-type which are addressed to "the occupier".

Mr Dewhirst said he was like a zombie that day and admits he should really have had the day off.

But being sick was not his style and he struggled through his round, which can include up to 520 individual addresses and several miles of walking for up to four hours non stop, six days a week. It was only when he got to the end that he found the three mis-sorted circulars.

"I should have gone back and delivered them, but I didn't because I was so desperate to get home. I know it was wrong, but I fully intended to deliver them the following day," he said.

However, a spot-check carried out at the sorting office discovered the three circulars and Mr Dewhirst was suspended after being told it was a sackable offence. Later that week he was dismissed for "wilful delay".

Fighting the postman's corner was communication workers' union representative Bryan Lee. Mr Lee said he believed his colleague was just someone in the wrong place at the wrong time.

He said he was being used as a scapegoat because a few weeks earlier some items had gone missing and checks were being made by the investigations branch of the Post Office.

But when residents on his round heard of his dismissal they too got behind him and several hundred people signed petitions asking the Post Office to reinstate him. Around 70 more residents wrote individual testimonials and character references.

These were presented at his appeal three weeks ago, and last Thursday he learned the good news that the job was his again.

The following morning he was back in Gargrave wearing his familiar uniform and greeting many of the people who had supported him.

"I sent everyone who wrote a testimonial either a Christmas card, a little note or phoned them to thank them personally for their support and to let them know how much I appreciated what they had done for me," he said.

Mr Dewhirst said the last three months had been hard with only £53 per week job seekers' allowance for him and his wife to live on.

"I'm just glad to be back and want to carry on doing my job until I retire. I'm not bitter because I realise the Post Office had a job to do, but I did have genuine mitigating circumstances and I'm glad they have accepted them."