A POSTMAN stole DVDs, computer games and a cheque from people on his round before dumping almost 150 letters and packages in a reen in Newport.

Kyle Chambers, 25, was found with the missing items in his bedroom after the Royal Mail launched an investigation into how the letters ended up ditched in Beach Road, St Bride’s.

Prosecutor Robert Wade told Abergavenny magistrates that the dumped mail was spotted on May 17, 2012, and reported to Royal Mail, who retrieved it.

The addresses were traced back to Chambers’ delivery round and should have been posted on May 12. In total, there were 148 items of mail which had been dumped.

An investigation team interviewed Chambers, of Nash Road, Newport, and arranged for a search to be carried out of the room he was renting at the time.

A £450 cheque meant for a person on Chambers’ round was found inside a Primark bag in his bedroom. A Vodafone SIM card, as well as two copies of the computer game Need for Speed: The Run, one of Fallout: New Vegas, and DVDs of War Horse and How to Train Your Dragon were also uncovered and traced back to Lovefilm accounts for people who had reported them undelivered.

Chambers, who had only started working for Royal Mail on March 12, denied criminal damage in relation to the dumped mail and theft of the items found in his bedroom.

He claimed that while on his round he drove his scooter into the back of a Hovis van and said he must have dropped the letters then for someone else to pick them up and dump them.

He told the court he did not steal the items found at his home but they were left over in the bottom of postal bags or he had been unable to deliver them and was going to return them all.

Magistrates found him guilty of both counts but adjourned sentencing until March 26 for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.

Chairman of the bench Viv Perry said: “We do not find the explanation you gave plausible – by any definition, you were dishonest and stole property belonging to others.”