A CONVICTED criminal says terrorists or opportunist thieves could be pawing through our post after he was allowed to work in Worcester's sorting office without security checks, despite telling the Royal Mail of his criminal record.

The reformed former thief said the blunder may mean criminals could be working for the firm - with access to thousands of unsigned credit and cash cards and private papers.

Kevin Young was employed by the company on a casual contract and allowed to start work before vetting checks with the police had been completed.

But when the results of those checks arrived, Mr Young was dismissed, despite stating his record in his application form.

"I just feel like I have been messed around by them," said the 33-year-old, of The Glades, in Malvern.

"I was surprised they gave me a job to begin with. But I was pleased.

"But then to let me start work, work for four days, and then sack me because of the police checks is very annoying.

"They should have done all these checks before I started working there. For all they knew, I could have been anyone, there was no security checks at all.

"I was dealing with all the mail and was not searched at all when I left the building."

A friend of Mr Young's who wished to be anonymous added: "He could have been a terrorist or anything, getting access to all sorts of information."

Letters

A week after being dismissed Mr Young, who was released from prison in August after serving time for theft and burglary, then received two contradictary letters from the company on the same day.

The first, from the recruitment customer services department, thanked him for his work over the Christmas period and asked him if he was interested in applying for a full-time position.

The second, from the joining services department, told him that his services would not be required by the company because of his criminal record.

"There is obviously no communication at all," said the father-of-one. "The impression I got from the second letter was as if I had not worked for the company at all. When in fact I had done four days work."

A spokesman for Royal Mail apologised for the blunder and said that it was an exception and not a regular occurrence.

"It's extremely disappointing that this has happened and we apologise," said Sue Dakin. "It's a very unfortunate set of circumstances.

"The criminal checks were late in coming back."

She added: "The security of mail is vitally important and in this instance it (the criminal record check) was late in the process but it was caught early.

"People should feel secure that the necessary checks are being carried out."