A HUDDERSFIELD sub-postmaster who used Royal Mail money to keep afloat his ailing convenience store has been given a suspended prison sentence for false accounting.

When auditors visited the Newsome Post Office, Huddersfield, in June 2008 sub-postmaster Gurdeep Dhale told them they would find a discrepancy of £60,000.

But a judge heard yesterday that investigators actually found a total loss of nearly £169,000.

Dhale, who became sub-postmaster in July 2005, was initially charged with theft, but at an earlier court hearing his guilty plea to the false accounting allegation was accepted by the prosecution.

Prosecutor Andrew Stranex told Bradford Crown Court that Dhale, 27, was suspended from his post and nine days later he revealed to investigators that there was a third safe at premises which contained £105,000 in cash.

The money was seized by the Royal Mail and yesterday Mr Stranex told Judge John Potter that Dhale would also face further confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

The court heard that there was still a dispute as to whether the total discrepancy figure was the Royal Mail’s £169,000 or just £130,000.

But Dhale’s barrister Stephen Wood stressed that his client had never intended any loss would be incurred and he explained how the defendant came under financial pressure after he took over the running of the Costcutter store which incorporated the post office business.

Mr Wood said his client had taken on an expensive lease agreement at a time when another store in the area started selling similar items.