A former Metropolitan Police officer, Craig Carter, has been sentenced to 16 months in prison for stealing money from a deceased man in Britain, Sky News reports.
Carter, 51, admitted to taking £115 from the wallet of Claudio Gaetani, who died after collapsing between 7 and 14 September 2022. The officer, who served with the Met’s North Area Command Unit for 23 years, was suspended and later dismissed from the force in August.
“You threw all of that away – you let down your force, you let down your community,” Judge Kalyani Kaul KC said during Carter’s sentencing on Friday.
The court heard that Carter had pleaded guilty to misconduct in public office in July. The charge stated that he “took for his own use money from a wallet received by him in evidence in relation to a sudden death.”
Tetteh Turkson, of the Crown Prosecution Service, emphasized the severity of Carter’s actions:
“The vast majority of police officers are viewed by members of the public as trustworthy, responsible and upstanding members of our society. Craig Carter fell woefully short of these expectations. The fact Carter thought he could freely steal from a victim who had sadly passed away is not only disturbing, but deeply disrespectful to the victim’s family.”
The judge had previously warned Carter during a hearing that “an immediate custodial sentence seems the likely outcome.”
