Palace Employee Pleads Guilty To Theft Including Photo Of Prince William And Kate
Buckingham Palace catering assistant faces jail for stealing medals and official photos of the Royal family. Adamo Canto, 37, pleaded guilty to three counts of theft between November 11 last year and August 7 at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.
Canto admitted stealing a “significant quantity” of items from Buckingham Palace, including signed photos of Prince William and Duchess Kate and a photo album of the Royal State Banquet during US President Donald Trump’s state visit, which he sold for £1,500 on eBay.
He also confessed he stole a Companion of the Order of the Bath gong and a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order medal. Canto had taken advantage of the lockdown of the offices at Buckingham Palace during COVID-19, when he was given cleaning roles.
Some 77 items were taken from the palace shop, while others were stolen from staff lockers, the linen room, the Royal Collection ticket office, the Queen’s Gallery shop and the Duke of York’s storeroom, the court heard.
About the theft, prosecutor Simon Maughan said some of the goods, worth between £10,000 and £100,000, were listed for sale on eBay. Canto made £7,741 from the sale of 37 items, which were advertised on the shopping site for “well under” their true value.
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.
“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.
“His parents’ address in Scarborough was also searched and it appears he sold the 37 eBay items for £7,741.23.