A former servant of the royal family has pleaded guilty to stealing items of “sentimental value” from the Buckingham Palace.
37-year-old Adamo Canto admitted stealing several items of high worth from the residence of Elizabeth II, the Queen of the United Kingdom, after being tasked with cleaning duties following lockdown in the country.
While Canto worked at the palace as a catering assistant since 2015, he was also in charge of cleaning duties amid the pandemic.
Using the access to locker rooms as an opportunity to steal, the 37-year-old reportedly stole around 77 items worth up to $130,000.
Among the stolen items were also objects of sentimental value such as signed photos of Prince William and Kate Middleton, a Companion of the Order of the Bath medal awarded to a former Navy vice-admiral, and a photo album containing pictures from the Royal State Banquet.
As the court heard 37 of the stolen items were sold by Canto on eBay far below their real value. The authorities were reportedly unable to recover all of the items stolen by the servant of the royal family.
“It appears that Mr Canto, who at the time was living at the Royal Mews in Buckingham Palace, had various items that had been taken from within Buckingham Palace,” Prosecutor Simon Maughan said.
“One of the complainants had located the medal on eBay having been sold on May 27. It was an account called AdamoSalvatori123 which was tracked to Mr Canto.
“Forensic data was provided by eBay. His sale history shows 37 items that had been sold from Buckingham Palace.”
Mr. Maughan added:
“At the time, Mr Canto was employed as a catering assistant and indeed he worked at Buckingham Palace since 2015.
“It appears to be the case he had taken advantage of lockdown of offices during Covid-19 and given extra cleaning roles, a deep clean giving him access to items he would not normally be given in his catering role.
“Police attended the Royal Mews and arrested him. A search was carried out, and some items were recovered. His parents’ address in Scarborough was also searched and it appears he sold the 37 eBay items for £7,741.23. This is well under the shop value. 77 items were recovered from the Palace Shop, 11 items belonging to the Masters Department.”
As the prosecutor insisted, the stolen items had a value of up to £100,000 ($130,000), whereas “additional harm” was caused by the theft due to the items having a “sentimental value.”
Following the charges, Canto pleaded guilty to theft.
“Obviously you’ve done the right thing by pleading guilty at the first opportunity,” Judge Alexander Jacobs said.
“I commit to the Crown Court for sentencing as my powers are not sufficient to deal with this today. I cannot tell you when, but it will usually be in three or four weeks.
“I grant you bail but you must turn up at Southwark Crown Court on the day you are told otherwise you may be committing a separate offense.”
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