A LAZY postwoman who stored thousands of letters and packages at her home has been jailed for six months today.

Mail bosses were puzzled for months by complaints of missing deliveries in Musselburgh and the surrounding area. It was only when a concerned neighbour reported that Coleen Brodie had piles of post stored in her car that they were able to get to the bottom of it.

A police search of the 39-year-old’s home in Musselburgh turned up almost 6000 undelivered letters and packages, including a handful that had actually been opened.

When quizzed by cops over the missing mail, she admitted it has been laziness on her part and she has opened up some of them because she was hard up before Christmas. She was jailed for six months at Edinburgh Sheriff Court today after pleading guilty previously to delaying the delivery of mail and stealing 12 postal packages.

Sheriff James Scott said: “The public are entitled to be protected from such behaviour from people entrusted to be in charge of their mail”.

Brodie, who now lives at North Grange in Prestonpans, had only been working for Royal Mail for about a year when she began stashing her post. Between December 2004 and March 2005, she kept 5820 postal packages at her home in Musselburgh and in her car.

Brodie said she initially had intended to deliver the post at a later date but let it build up and was forced to stash the packages in her attic, shed and car.

She was caught out in March 2005 when an anonymous caller reported the letters in the car and police carried out a full search of her home. Letters and parcels were found hidden in the attic, in the shed and in the wheelie bin.

A dozen of them had been opened but Royal Mail were able to recover the goods once she was arrested. Her husband, Jim, 50, also worked for Royal Mail, although he was separated from his wife and told police he had no idea that the post was being hoarded. Both were immediately sacked by Royal Mail bosses at the Musselburgh delivery office.

Brodie’s solicitor, Simon Collins, explained: “What began as a delaying tactic with the intention of later completing her rounds ended up with this accumulation of undelivered items in her house.”

Before the thefts took place, Brodie had been running a successful design business while also helping her husband operate a finance company.

But they ran into money problems when Brodie’s business partner died from cancer and she had to deal with a mounting debt. Both companies ran into difficulties and the couple were forced to sell their home.

It was at this “low ebb” that Brodie took on the job at the post office and defaulted in the completion of her daily rounds. Brodie had been living and working at a hotel in Prestonpans before being sentenced yesterday. She is now divorced from her husband.

A spokeswoman for Royal Mail insisted that Brodie’s punishment should reassure customers that the security of their mail is a serious issue. She said: “Royal Mail take the security of mail extremely seriously and it is a criminal offence to delay or tamper with the mail. Anyone caught doing so will be prosecuted.”