Royal Mail worker stole £3,600 worth of Six Nations rugby tickets

A TEENAGER who stole 60 rugby union tickets worth £3,600 while working at a Royal Mail sorting office in Sighthill was today ordered to carry out 220 hours of community service.

Benedict Nagle, 19, gave some of the Six Nations tickets to pals but others expired.

At an earlier hearing at Edinburgh Sheriff Court fiscal depute Aidan Higgins said the tickets were for games Scotland was playing against Wales, Italy and Ireland.

In total 20 of the 60 tickets were stolen for each game.

Mr Higgins said: "They were sent out by the Scottish Rugby Union by the Royal Mail to a corporate client.

"The accused had been taken on for a work placement by the Royal Mail and had impressed during the six-week placement and had been kept on.

"He was employed at a sorting centre at Sighthill and the package containing the rugby tickets caught his eye and he took the package.

"He gifted 18 tickets to persons who had been generous to him in the recent past.

"The other 42 remained in his possession and simply expired."

The court heard the client, Miller Group, first thought the tickets had gone missing in its offices.

But Nagle, a first offender, was caught when the tickets were used at games and were traced in the system.

The teenager admitted stealing the Scottish Rugby Union Tickets at the Royal Mail Sorting Office at Sighthill, Edinburgh, on 22 January last year.

He also admitted failing to appear at court on 9 November last year.

The court heard it had been an opportunistic theft and that Nagle had lost his job as a result.

Sheriff Derrick McIntyre told Nagle: "It is a serious breach of trust and if you had previous convictions you would have gone to prison."

Nagle was also fined 100 for the failing to turn up at court charge.

Sentence had previously been deferred on Nagle, of Inchkeith Court, Edinburgh, for the preparation of background reports.