A letter carrier for the U.S. Postal Service in Saco who threw away the mail from his route in 2013 rather than deliver it was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Portland to a year of probation.

Jason A. McIntyre, 41, of Biddeford dumped 576 pieces of mail intended for 115 addresses into the trash at the Saco Valley Shopping Center on four days in November 2013. A maintenance worker at the shopping center discovered the mail in the trash, according to a prosecution document filed in court.

“When confronted on November 25, 2013, McIntyre admitted throwing mail away on four occasions to avoid having to bring it back to the Annex and having to face management,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Halsey Frank wrote in the prosecution document.

McIntyre pleaded guilty before Judge Nancy Torresen on June 16 to a federal charge of destruction of mail.

Torresen also sentenced McIntyre on Tuesday to pay a $500 fine.

McIntyre began working for the Postal Service as an assistant city letter carrier in September 2013 and lost his job as a result of this crime, according to Frank.