A former staff of Queen Elizabeth has been sentenced to prison after he admitted in court that he stole from Buckingham Palace and sold the items on an online auction site.
Adamo Canto, 37, who worked as a catering assistant at the Palace, was sentenced to eight months in prison Monday after pleading guilty to stealing more than a hundred valuable items at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown.
According to People, Canto has been working at Buckingham since 2015 and started taking stuff that did not belong to him in November 2019. But he took advantage of the pandemic and stole more times until August 2020, as he was given access to more rooms in the Palace amid a staff redundancy.
Canto stole from the gift shop, the Queen's Gallery shop, the storeroom of Prince Andrew, and even his co-workers' lockers. Some of the prized pieces he took was a handset known as the "world's first folding mobile phone," which was specially made for the Duke of York, a photo of President Donald Trump's visit during the royal banquet, which was valued at $2,000, and an invaluable medal from Queen Elizabeth, which belonged to the Master of the Household Vice Admiral Master Tony Johnstone-Burt.
The thief also took some signed photos of Prince William, Kate Middleton, and Prince Harry. He listed many of his Palace haul's on eBay for "well under" their actual value yet he managed to profit at least $10,000.
The police found some of the stolen goods when they raided Canto's apartment at the Royal Mews, the home for Queen Elizabeth's household staff. He entered a guilty plea in court in November 2020 and received his sentencing almost five weeks later.
Judge David Tomlinson reprimanded Canto in court after the thief claimed that he was struggling financially and thought that he could recover by stealing and selling items from Buckingham Palace. Howard Cohen, the defendant's lawyer, asked for a lighter sentence by arguing that Canto had impeccable character references prior to his offense.
Canto, who hails from a sheltered upbringing in Yorkshire, used to work at a care facility and managed a team of people who took care of people with dementia and Alzheimers. His former bosses said that he was honest, trustworthy, and professional.
In 2015, Canto moved to London when he found a job at Buckingham Palace. He wasn't able to cope with the cost of living in the city, so his debts piled. However, the judge said that Canto should have reached out to his family or friends instead of breaking the trust of Queen Elizabeth and the royal household.
