A PARCEL Force worker has been ordered to pay back more than £13,000 he made from stealing and selling his employer's old equipment.

Desmond Seaman stole 101 handheld computers and finger scanners stored in a Middlesbrough depot.

He sold them on to another company second-hand.

The other firm innocently bought the goods believing the sale to be authorised by Parcel Force.

Seaman, 34, falsified documents using official stationery to make it seem like a genuine legitimate sale.

He forged signatures and used the names of two other employees, wrongly casting suspicion on them.

At Teesside Crown Court on Wednesday, Judge Howard Crowson authorised £13,667.50 to be removed from Seaman's Royal Mail pension pot to cover the theft.

The court heard the defendant had accumulated a fund of more than £60,000 during a 15-year career with the company.

Prosecution costs of £4,752 were also authorised to be paid from the pension.

Seaman, of Penllyn Way, Hemlington, Middlesbrough, admitted theft, converting criminal property and four counts of obtaining services dishonestly - his first convictions - at an earlier hearing.

He had researched the value of the equipment, which had been replaced and was no longer in use.

He also used his work position to mail the stolen devices without paying postage.

Seaman confessed to investigators, saying he was heavily in debt since a marriage breakup.

He used the money to pay bank and credit card debt and mortgage payments.