An illegal immigrant from Nigeria, who used false documents to get work as a sorter in a Scottish Royal Mail depot and then stole cheque books belonging to various companies, writing cheques to himself or four aliases he used, has been jailed for two years and three months.

Between September 1, 2003, and June 18 this year, 29-year old Adebiyi Adebayo obtained £11,372.99 by fraud and attempted to obtain a further £11,428 by fraud.

Adebayo pleaded guilty at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last month to fraud, attempted fraud and being in possession of a forged French passport. Sentence was deferred until Wednesday for background reports.

Fiscal Depute, Carol Urquhart, said Adebayo came to the United Kingdom in 2002. Using a fals Immigration Entrants Letter, stating that he had permission to work in this country.

He got a job as a sorter in the Royal Mail's Edinburgh Mail Centre in Cutlins Road. He also rented a flat in Reid Terrace and got a provisional driving licence under false names.

During his work, he stole packets containing business cheque books and wrote chegues to himself or one of his four aliases and paid them into bank accounts in branches of Abbey National, Woolwich, Nationwide and Halifax Bank of Scotland.

The Fiscal said the matter came to light when the building societies and banks " became aware something untoward was going on".

The cheques were coming from the back of the cheque books, books which had been sent from the printers in Manchester to various companies, but had gone missing.

Adebayo, she said, had used a photograph as identification to open his various accounts. The police got a copy of it and showed it to the manager of the Royal Mail depot where he worked and he identified him as a member of staff.

Ms Urquhart said none of the companies whose cheques Adebayo used suffered any financial loss, the societies and banks had covered that.

Defence agent, Pat McCann, told Sheriff Kenneth Maciver that Adebayo had come to the country on a student visa and joined members of his family already here.

Two of his brothers had travelled up from London and Manchester to be in court.

"They are as stunned as anybody that their brother could have committed these offences " he said.

He admitted that the fraudulent schemes had not been impulsive, one-off affairs. They were well thought out.

"The over-riding purpose was to build a life in this country, but he went about it in a misguided fashion".

His client, he said, had got the false French passport to make it easier to obtain employment.

Mr McCann said the money had been invested in property, not squandered and was recoverable.

Sheriff Maciver told Adebayo he was recommending to the Home Office that he should be deported.

A deportation notice has already been served on him. The Sheriff said the scheme had been deliberate and well-thought out with the purpose of financial gain. It had also involved a breach of security of the Royal Mail system.

He jailed Adebayo for two years on the fraud and a concurrent sentence of one year on the attempted fraud. On the false passport charge, the Sheriff sentenced him to three months to run consecutively to the two years.

The Crown are taking action under the Proceeds of Crime Act to recover the money taken by fraud.