OPP officer ‘very, very sorry’ for theft of drugs, cash

A Leeds County OPP officer who stole drugs and money from suspects, including $10,000 he stashed in the rafters of his Maitland home, will be sentenced Sept. 27.

George Duke, who pleaded guilty in January to six theft, drug and firearms charges, was contrite and apologetic when he appeared at his sentencing hearing on Monday.

“I am very, very sorry. I cannot express my sorrow enough,” the 55-year-old Duke told the Ontario Court of Justice.

His lawyer, Mark Wallace, asked that Duke be given a 12-month sentence to be served at the St. Lawrence Valley Correctional and Treatment Centre in Brockville, where he could be treated for post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

Wallace pointed to a psychiatric evaluation of Duke that suggested his mental health problems “may ” have contributed to his criminal behaviour.

But Crown prosecutor Paul McDermott argued that Duke’s crimes were motivated by greed and that he acted like a “common thief.”

McDermott urged that Duke be sentenced to two years plus a day. McDermott said the stolen money included $1,500 that was stashed in an envelope behind the visor of a car and $10,000 in the trunk.

When Duke was arrested a few days later, he was carrying $840 cash from the envelope — the rest he had apparently spent — and the $10,000 was hidden in the rafters of his basement, McDermott said.

The $10,000 that Duke has stolen was actually fake, part of a sting operation by the OPP’s organized crime enforcement and professional standards bureaus, with assistance from the RCMP and Montreal police.