Ex-footie star jailed for tipping off burglars about empty properties

London -  A former footballer turned postman has been jailed for tipping off burglars about house owners on holiday.

Former Bristol City defender Andrew Llewellyn, 45, leaked private information from Royal Mail files.

A gang then ransacked 18 houses, stealing 100,000-pound worth of goods.

Judge Julian Lambert at Bristol crown court told Llewellyn that he had been part of a “wicked conspiracy”.

“I struggle to see how you took leave of your senses,” the Mirror quoted the judge as saying.

Llewellyn, who was jailed for three years after admitting conspiracy to btheft, enjoyed a 12-year career as a right-back with City from 1982 to 1994.

But he turned to crime after 10 years as a postman in nearby Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.

The court heard he passed the addresses from Royal Mail’s scheme to withhold post for people away to criminal Adam Holmes, 47, also from Weston-super-Mare.

Divorced Llewellyn, who was caught in July last year, claimed he was drawn in when he was unable to repay a debt to the crook.

Mark Worsley, defending, said his client had received a threatening call identifying his 10-year-old son’s route home from school.

Holmes got six years after admitting 11 of the burglaries but is thought to have acted as part of a gang.