Met Police officer pleads guilty to stealing money from man's wallet as he lay dead on the street
26 July 2024, 13:31
A Met Police officer has pleaded guilty to stealing money from a dead man’s wallet as he lay lifeless on the street.
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PC Craig Carter, 51, stole £115 from the late Italian filmmaker Claudio Gaetani between September 7 and 14, 2022.
The constable, of Harlow, Essex, pleaded guilty of misconduct in a public office.
He was charged after cash was stolen from Mr Gaetani as he lay dead on a Haringey street for six hours while police officers waited for undertakers to arrive.
Mr Gaetani, 45, is said to have suffered a heart attack during the morning rush hour while he was cycling to meet an Italian couple he had been staying with in Hornsey, north London.
He had reportedly only arrived in London the day before after travelling from his native Italy, the Daily Mail reported. The outlet also reports that Mr Gaetani was a filmmaker.
The complaint was filed after the wife of the couple he was staying with noticed the money had gone missing from his wallet, and said she is not making the complaint due to the money.
"Claudio comes from quite a wealthy family. I'm still doing this complaint not because of the money but because people who are in uniform they should have a kind of trust.
"I think it is really disrespectful. I was really, really upset."
Her husband added: "He was he type of person when you meet you can fall in love with, absolutely cheerful and positive, even with his physical condition of dwarfism he was never saying no to any adventure.
"We spent a lot of time travelling."
Mr Carter appeared at Wood Green Crown Court on Friday in a dark suit to plead guilty to the charge, which said that “while acting as a public officer namely as a police constable” he “took for his own use money from a wallet received by him in evidence in relation to a sudden death”.
Judge Daniel Fugallo ordered a pre-sentencing report and granted Carter unconditional bail ahead of his sentencing on September 13 - but warned him not to see this as an indication of what sentence he may receive.
“I have to make it absolutely clear that an immediate custodial sentence seems the likely outcome in this case but that will be a matter for the sentencing judge,” Mr Fugallo said.
“Neither the ordering of the report nor the fact that I am granting you bail should be taken as any indication to the type of sentence you will receive.”
Mr Carter has been suspended from his duty as an officer in the Met’s North Area Command Unit, covering Enfield and Haringey.
