A lazy Wolverhampton postman hoarded hundreds of important letters in his car because he could not be bothered to deliver them, a court heard.

The wage slips, bills, credit card details and even a pair of airline tickets were found after customers complained about mail not arriving.

Jason Langford had only been doing the job for three months but Royal Mail investigators found 1,878 undelivered “postal packages” littering the boot, passenger footwell and back seat of his Vauxhall Corsa.

Another letter was discovered in Langford’s house in Underhill Lane, Bushbury, prosecutor Mr John Dove told Wolverhampton Magistrates Court yesterday.

Langford, aged 21, who had alternated between rounds in Fallings Park, Warstones and Coven, said: “I walked too slowly. I was just being lazy.”

Langford began work as a postman on September 14 last year – three days after the first delayed letter later discovered in his car had been posted. He was suspended on December 14 and has since been sacked.

Mr Chris Stapleton, defending, told the court: “He is extremely remorseful.”

Langford admitted delaying postal packets and was given a 12-month community order with 200 hours of unpaid work. He was also ordered to pay £750 costs.

Initially, he offered to settle the debt at the rate of £5 a week but this was doubled on the orders of District Judge Graham Wilkinson who told him: “I notice in your pre-sentence report that you smoke cannabis.

“I do not pay my taxes to enable you to do that, so you can stop smoking cannabis and pay the costs of the case at twice the rate you have offered to do it.”