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Senior Constable stole $10,000

Sen-Con Christopher Sean Vincent guilty of stealing $10,000
Shelley Hadfield
November 21, 2008

A POLICEMAN who stole more than $10,000 from a bogged car will spend his first night behind bars tonight.

Sen-Con Christopher Sean Vincent, 38, was today sentenced to 12 months’ jail, eight months of which was suspended. It means he will have to spend four months in jail.

A County Court jury earlier this month found Vincent guilty of one count of theft.

Merlene Johnstone told the jury she had $35,000 to $40,000 in her car when it became bogged on a road in Flinders in June, 2005.

She said that when she went back to the Honda Jazz hatchback with her partner to try to free it, there were two police officers around it.

Ms Johnstone and her partner had been drinking and decided not to stop at the scene, Judge Graeme Hicks said today.

When they later returned to the scene, the cash – takings from her take away food shop and pizza shop – was gone, he said.

Judge Hicks said he was satified that Vincent stole at least $10,000 from the car with colleague Anthony Imre Antal, 32.

Prosecutors alleged more than $10,000 was taken but Judge Hicks said it had not been determined how much.

Judge Hicks said that in sentencing Vincent, he took into account the hardship he would suffer in jail as a former policeman, the fact the theft was opportunistic, the fact he had lost his career, the delay in the case, the fact he had no priors and his battle with depression.

“I accept this was an opportunistic theft and it had not been pre-planned in any way,” Judge Hicks said.

“It certainly was not an example of . . . systematic police corruption.”

Vincent and Antal were doing a divisional van patrol out of Rosebud on the night of the theft and were called to Woods St in Flinders to check a report of a female loiterer.

They found the Honda sitting unattended and parked on an angle.

Antal claims he saw Vincent stuff something down his pants as he checked through the car.

The pair later split $10,000 out of the boot, Judge Hicks said.