BIDDEFORD — A Biddeford man hired to deliver mail in Saco was sentenced at U.S. District Court in Portland Monday to one year of probation for destroying mail, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Tuesday.

According to court documents, Jason A. McIntyre, 41, was hired by the U.S. Postal Service in 2013 as an assistant city letter carrier in Saco. On several dates in November of that year, McIntyre threw 576 pieces of mail addressed to 115 addresses into the trash at the Saco Valley Shopping Center, where a maintenance worker later discovered it. McIntyre later admitted to throwing the mail away to avoid having to bring it back to the Saco annex and face punishment for not delivering all of the mail.

Judge Nancy Torresen also fined McIntyre $500 for the offense, which he pleaded guilty to in June. In sentencing McIntyre, Torresen said his “poor decision” to throw the mail away could have led to worse results considering mail sometimes contains irreplaceable items, according to a statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The USPS’s Office of the Inspector General conducted the investigation.