Pensioner posted poo through Wakefield postbox, court is told

Footage screened at Leeds Magistrates' Court showed 66-year-old Khosro Amiressami loitering around the box on Agbrigg Road, close to the junction with Oakenshaw Street, before taking a letter out of a bag and dropping it through the slot.

It happened shortly before noon on June 17, last year.

When the postman went to collect the postbox contents about an hour later, he found the slot smeared with either human or animal waste.

After opening the box he found it had contaminated around 15 other letters. He then sealed the box up to prevent others being posted and damaged.

A specialist cleaning company had to be brought in, costing £600.

A police investigation led to external CCTV footage being recovered from a nearby shop and showed Amiressami's silver Nissan Qashqai, with its number plate in sight, turning into Oakenshaw Street at around 11.50am that day.

He is then seen walking around the corner onto Agbrigg Road and stopping close to the postbox. He looks around, crosses the nearby zebra crossing before returning seconds later.

Amiressami, of Moorland Drive, Hall Green, was later questioned but denied any wrongdoing, and said he had never been to that road.

Charged with criminal damage, he appeared at Leeds Magistrates' Court on Tuesday afternoon where he represented himself during a short trial.

He said he had never been to Agbrigg Road, claiming it was a "set-up" when asked by prosecutor Vicky Trueman why his car had been there that day. He admitted that he was the only person insured to drive the Nissan.

He said: "It's nothing to do with me. I have lived in Hall Green for nine years and have never been near that road.

"It's been set up by somebody."

But District Judge Susan Bouch said it was clear it was his car and him on the CCTV.

Amiressami, who has no previous convictions, was handed a 12-month conditional discharge and ordered to pay £600 compensation to cover the clean-up cost.

After being sentenced, he continued to protest to the judge, saying: "I'm angry that I have been set up, it's nonsense.

"This is robbery, you are dragging innocent people here to rob their pocket."