A THIEVING ex-Hermes courier who got caught when his employers found the stolen stock on eBay has been ordered to do community service.

Peter Diakowski admitted stealing two Next camisole tops before they had a chance to be delivered to the paying customer sometime between December 2016 and 2017.

The 51-year-old had been an Hermes employee for five years and stole the tops while he was in charge of the depot thinking the offence would go undetected.

But when the missing clothing was flagged up on an internal system for undelivered items, and later discovered online, Diakowski’s time was up.

Selena Dines, mitigating, said: “Unfortunately, he had money worries. He had credit cards, unpaid bills, and this is why he committed this offence.

“It was a small item he thought he could get away with.

“He never looked at any large items. It was little items here and there.

“Unfortunately, he lost his job and he has found alternative employment. It’s another courier position but there’s no possibility of this happening at his new role.”

That is because Diakowski, who now works for another large courier company, is no longer in charge of scanning items in and out for the depo, Ms Dines explained.

Although the item was recovered to Hermes, Diakowski had been convicted of a similar offence in 2009.

Then he received a 48- week custodial sentence suspended for 18 months and given a community order with unpaid work.

Prosecutor at Colchester Magistrates’ Court, Wayne Ablett, said: “The item was flagged up, Hermes bought it from eBay to see if they could track it and they linked it back to Hermes.

“Mr Diakowski had a voluntary police interview in February when he made a full admission.

“When officers asked him why he did it, he said: “I don’t know. It was the money I suppose.”

“He also said it had happened about a dozen times before.”

The Yodel worker, of Coast Road, West Mersea, left court with yet another community order and fine.

Chairman of the bench, Mark Paget, said: “Clearly you have been here before and understand the breach of trust you have committed.

“The court will deal with you by way of community penalty because we believe it to be so serious.

“This will be for 12 months which will expire on April 22 2019 and includes a single requirement that you will do 80 hours of unpaid work in the community, which will be reduced by a third due to your early guilty plea.

In addition to the 54 hours of unpaid work, Diakowski must pay £170 in costs.