£100k Palace pilferer
Servant stole medals and photos to sell on eBay
A ROYAL servant stole items worth £100,000 including two medals belonging to senior Buckingham Palace staff.
Catering assistant Adamo Canto, 37, sold the goods online – under his own name – for a fraction of their market value, a court heard yesterday.
Canto admitted three counts of theft. Among items he took while pretending to clean the palace to prevent the spread of Covid-19 was a Companion of the Order of the Bath medal belonging to Master of the Royal Household Vice-Admiral Sir Anthony Johnstone-Burt.
He sold it for £350 on eBay under the username AdamoSalvatori123.
Canto also stole a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order medal awarded to Major General Matthew
‘Took advantage of lockdown’
Sykes, 65, a Gentleman Usher to the Queen. Other items he took included signed photos of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge and a photo album of the state banquet attended by President Donald Trump, which he sold for £1,500.
Canto began stealing from the Royal Household and Buckingham Palace Shop in November last year.
When he was given additional coronavirus-related cleaning duties, he used the access to steal from locker rooms. He was arrested at his Royal Mews home on August 7 but not all the items have been recovered, Westminster Magistrates’ Court heard.
Simon Maughan, prosecuting, said Canto stole nearly 100 items and sold 37 of them on eBay for £7,741.23, well below their market value. One of the medals was found on the website by its owner after it was sold. The listing was traced to Canto.
‘It appears 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,’ Mr Maughan said. ‘There is an aggravating factor, the trust element that people on site are to understand, uphold and comply with.’
Vice-Admiral Johnstone-Burt, 62, said he had to borrow a medal for the Trooping the Colour ceremony on June 11, when he stood by the Queen’s side.
In a statement read to the court, he added: ‘I had been informed by a member of the Royal Household that items from Buckingham Palace were being sold on eBay. I discovered that my Companion of the Order of the Bath was up for sale for £500. It had been sold for £350. The replacement value is £665.’
Mr Maughan said the total value of the objects stolen could be £100,000 but Canto’s actions caused ‘additional harm’ because of the items’ sentimental importance.
Canto, of Scarborough, was bailed to appear for sentence at Southwark Crown Court. He has regularly posted on social media about his royal duties and boasted of his invitations to the weddings of Prince Harry to Meghan Markle and Princess Eugenie to Jack Brooksbank.
Buckingham Palace declined to comment.