An ex-postal worker has been meted a six month jail work-release sentence for pouring urine into his co-workers' coffee.

Thomas Shaheen, 50, was also fined $1,200 to compensate for the cost of a videotape catching him spoiling the office coffee.

Shaheen pleaded guilty and apologized to several postal workers. He was charged with two misdemeanor charges of tainting food.

"I don't know what became of me," said Shaheen, "I hope you find it in your hearts someday to forgive me."

Shaheen had been polluting the coffee with his urine for a couple of months.

A videotaped account of Shaheen pouring urine into a coffee pot in a break room was caught in two occasions in July 2005.

His lawyer, Paul Adamson, said Shaheen had been disgruntled about his work.

"We can't believe Thomas would even stoop to this level for his own personal revenge," said co-worker Jene Jackson. "He would sit in the same room with people and watch them drink his sick little brew and think nothing of it."