A sorter who confessed to defrauding An Post by embezzling between £14,000 and £20,000 from telephone coin boxes over an eight-year period has been given a four-year suspended prison sentence at Castlebar Circuit Court sitting in Westport.
The judge said McNulty had to do 500 hours' community service.
McNulty (37), of The Quay, Westport, formerly from Achill, pleaded guilty to 54 sample charges of having taken money from 10 coin boxes around Westport over a period of 10 months from 1997 to 1998.
In evidence McNulty, who had 20 years of service with An Post, confessed he first began taking the money in the late 1980s.
His stealing was detected only after An Post installed a new computerised system of accounting last year.
An Post had a contract with Telecom Eireann to collect the phone box money on its behalf.
He resigned from An Post in August last year and was currently working for a building contractor.
He produced a bank draft for £14,262 in court which An Post accepted as compensation.