A MAN who was drunk, upset and angry, helped himself to a postbag from a Jobcentre letter box and slung it in the bin, a court was told.

Burnley magistrates heard how Clarence Atkinson, 39, who had been troubled by psychiatric problems since he was 16, couldn't explain what he had done when police turned up.

Atkinson, of Burrans Meadow, Colne, was conditionally discharged for 12 months and told to pay £65 costs, after admitting theft. The court heard the mail inside the bag was recovered.

Bill Berry, defending, said the defendant had a long history of psychiatric problems.

He had been getting his life very much back in order and for the last 12 months had been a voluntary helper at the Open Door Community Development Project at St Bartholomews Church, in Colne. Things had been looking a lot better for him.

In December last year, he formed a relationship with a woman, which did not work out and it had caused him a great deal of emotional distress. He had been receiving threats and began to drink.

Mr Berry said the defendant had come upon a group of young men trying to pull out post from the Jobcentre letter box and they had then left, leaving one of the post bags half pulled out.

For some reason unbeknown to Atkinson, he pulled the bag out of the box and put it in the waste paper bin. Police arrived and the defendant was extremely co-operative.

Mr Berry said the post bag had not been tampered with and was still zipped up.