Humberside Police PC Paul Wallace jailed for theft cover-up

A police officer who stole £65 from a dead man's wallet has been jailed for trying to cover up the theft.

PC Paul Wallace, 47, of Humberside Police, took the money when he was a liaison officer to the family of a man who died in June 2015.

He later planted £65 in the police property store to cover it up.

Wallace, of Willowdale, Hull, admitted perverting the course of justice and was sentenced to 15 months at Grimsby Crown Court.

A count of theft was ordered to lie on file after it was incorporated into the more serious charge.

'Affront to justice system'

Jonathan Sandiford, prosecuting, told the court Wallace was assigned to the family and helped search the deceased's property.

A number of items, including a brown wallet containing £65, were logged and placed in the property store at Clough Road police station in a numbered evidence bag.

Some days later Wallace returned the wallet to the deceased man's partner, who complained to the police professional standards branch when she found it empty.

Wallace withdrew money from a cash machine and placed it in an evidence bag with the same exhibit number as the wallet.

He also amended his pocket notebook and duped another officer into helping him find the money.

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Wallace had received a final written warning in 2010 for breaching police conduct regulations by forging the signature of a witness on a statement.

At sentencing, Judge John Thackray QC told him: "A prison sentence is nearly always required to mark the affront to our justice system when a person has committed the offence of perverting the course of justice."