A SUB-POSTMASTER stole almost £170,000 from his bosses.

Now he has admitted a charge of false accounting after Royal Mail investigators found almost £170,000 missing from the books of his Huddersfield premises.

Gurdeep Dhale, 27, had been due to stand trial on a theft allegation next month, but yesterday he appeared before Bradford Crown Court and pleaded guilty to the false accounting offence which covers a period between July 2005 and June 2008.

The offence relates to Dhale’s running of the post office premises where he lives on Newsome Road, Newsome.

Judge Peter Benson was told that the prosecution case was that there was a discrepancy in the accounts of £168,559.56.

Barrister Stephen Wood, for Dhale, said there was a dispute over the total figure involved, but he confirmed that an amount of £105,000 had already been repaid.

Mr Wood asked for Dhale’s sentence hearing to be fixed for February 28 and revealed that his client was trying to arrange for further repayments to be made.

Judge Benson agreed to the adjournment of the case and ordered a pre-sentence report to be prepared on Dhale.

“You’ve pleaded guilty now to false accounting involving a six-figure sum and that’s a serious matter involving a breach of trust.

“You must expect a custodial sentence,” the judge told Dhale.

The judge said he hoped that any issues about the outstanding money would be resolved by the next hearing and he granted Dhale bail in the meantime.