A Metropolitan Police officer who stole £1,500 from a safe in a “ridiculous” attempt to settle credit card debts has been jailed for ten months.
PC Bradley Francis, 35, plundered the money from Stoke Newington station after it had been seized by fellow officers in a criminal investigation.
In order to get access to the safe, Bradley pretended a member of the public had handed in £50. He was then captured on CCTV using a fleece to hide the moment he removed the stack of banknotes.
Francis, who used the money to pay off one of his credit card debts, admitted theft and was sentenced at Southark crown court on Monday to ten months in prison.
“It’s a great shame to see someone like you standing in the dock in front of me”, said Judge Martin Griffith.
“The public have to have confidence that police will apply the law to themselves and not consider themselves above the law.”
Pointing out Francis’s father has his own business, has offered to hire his son now that his police career is over, and could have settled his debts, the judge added: “You have thrown away the career you loved and you were good at, all because you went for a ridiculous way out of tight financial circumstances.
“I’m sure everyone is scratching their heads, asking why.”
The court heard officers put £1,500 in cash into the station safe when it was seized in an ongoing investigation, and the cash was checked and counted on April 11.
“When the officers involved in that investigation went to retrieve the money again on April 13, it was found to be missing,” said prosecutor Gregor McKinley.
“There was an investigation as to where it might have gone, and in the meantime it was discovered the only officer who had dealings with the safe during that time was Mr Francis.
“CCTV shows Mr Francis on April 12 opening the safe, spending what police say is rather a long time in there, and attempting to shield his actions using a fleece he was carrying, then locking the safe and moving away.
“Examination of the safe shows Mr Francis putting £50 into it which he recorded as having been given to him by a member of the public.
“That was his pretext for opening the safe, booking out the key, in order to steal the £1,500.”
The court heard Francis had withdrawn £50 from a cashpoint near to the police station before the theft, and bank records show he deposited £1500 which was transferred to a credit card account on the same day as the theft.
Francis, from Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, resigned from the Met after pleading guilty last month.
The court heard he has received commendations during his police career, and fellow officers wrote letters of support about his character for the sentencing hearing.
Francis’s marriage has now collapsed, and he has lost his job and home as a result of the offence.
He was ordered to serve up to half the ten-month prison sentence and pay £1500 in compensation to the Met Police.
