Port of Tilbury-Police Constable

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PC is accused of letting his mum launder £126k through his personal account.

 

Date - 8th November 2018
By - JJ Hutber- Police Oracle

 

A talented police officer never questioned why his mother asked him to make tens of thousands of pounds worth of ATM withdrawals every year because she was the sort of woman who “when she told you to do something you did it,” a misconduct hearing was told this morning.

Tamara Carter was jailed for four years in 2017 for stealing £859,000 from the property investment company she worked for as a personal assistant between 2008-2014.

She transferred £126k through her son Metropolitan Police PC Robert Carter’s personal bank account. The majority she transferred back to herself, but around £46k is agreed to be unaccounted for.

Although the Crown Prosecution Services decided there was insufficient evidence to charge PC Carter, a misconduct hearing started on Tuesday at the Empress State Building in West London into allegations he allowed Tamara to launder money through his account and benefitted financially.

He adamantly denies the allegations, saying he avoided looking at his bank statements because of his overspending, allowed Tamara to manage his account and she deposited money in his account then asked him to withdraw it in cash sums of £60-£200 because she “disliked using card”.

This morning counsel for PC Carter Nicholas Yeo argued the officer should not be criticised for failing to question why his mother asked him to withdraw £16k cash in a single year because she was not a stranger or an acquaintance but his closest relative.

She had raised him as single mother in his early childhood and the two were close, with PC Carter visiting her twice a week even after he moved out.

“It was very much a case if she asked me to do something for her she would expect me to do it. She was my mother.

“The way I was raised if you were asked to do something you would do it to the very best of your abilties from washing up to the easy job of putting up the Chrismas lights,” PC Carter told the panel this morning.

Mr Yeo said: “No one excepts their mother to be money laundering. You’ve heard evidence she brought him up as a single person, that they were close and he was proud of her.

“She’s your mother. You don’t expect her to commit a crime.

“You may also think well she was quite a dominant personality. When she told you to do something you did it.”

Mr Yeo also argued PC Carter was not the only person in the case who failed to mention suspicious transactions over several years.

Accountants for the owner of the defrauded company, named only as “SG”, only realised the huge sum of money was missing when the company started to wind down for closure.

Over a three year period around £600,000 was paid into a bank account SG believed was closed.

Mr Yeo said: “It is quite clear people should look at their bank statements and manage thier affairs.

“It’s a good idea to do so but that is very far from saying everyone does do that.

“It is perfectly possible in the officer’s case he did not check his bank statements, it is true there are people like that.

“You have very very good evidence - all you need to do is look at the other side of the transaction.”

“It can happen, it does happen and it happend in this case.”

Mr Yeo said the two months in which PC Carter spent double his monthly income could be explained by the fact that on one occasion he was trapped in Australia by the infamous Icelandic ash cloud in 2010 and the second occurred during the run up to Christmas before he moved house.

He said although PC Carter cannot easily differentiate between cash withdrawals made for himself and those made for Tamara, it should be noted that the ATM withdrawals add up to just over £46k - the total of the unaccounted funds.

PC Carter was one month into a detective training programme when he had to pull out of the course because of the criminal investigations.

It is significant, Mr Yeo said, that PC Carter achieved his lifelong ambition of becoming a police officer just months after the illicit transactions began appearing in his account.

“All he ever wanted is to be a police officer and he’s proud of being a police officer.

“It seems highly unlikely he would have knowingly permitted suspected payments into his account including payments which included the victim of the fraud as a reference, it seems highly unlikely he would jeapordise everything he worked for.”

He said every character reference for PC Carter, including from a chief superintendent, remarks on his dedication to serving the public and his “immense honesty and integrity”.

“The suggestion the officer knowingly did this is undermined by his general good conduct, the fact he’s got all he ever wanted and gives 100 per cent to it.”  

But counsel for the MPS Charles Apthorp pointed out the PC is unable to explain a £4k cash withdrawal made in branch, where it would have been impossible for his mother to take out the cash herself.

He said there is not a “shred of independent evidence” to support PC Carter’s claims he actually believed himself to be in financial difficulty during the six year period and the panel can only rely on his “bare word”.

“It is the sheer volume of transactions that is highly suspicious.

“A trained police officer would be aware. irrespective of family relationships - it is suspicious.

“It is not believable he did not look into this matter.

“Either he’s turning a blind eye to it or it’s a straight lie.”

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[ParochialYokal 1,119]

We sometimes do not act in the most rational ways in relation to our families. I admit that I stick my head in the sand about things. I also do not go through my bank statements like I once diligently did.

 

I can easily ‘no’ to just about anyone and not give a stuff about that, so long as I am being reasonable. But I find it hard to say ‘no’ to family and will often put their interests above my own. It’s only as I have got a bit older that I am realising that they are not perhaps the people I thought they were...

 

It sounds like he is an exceptional police officer but has been let down by his mother whom, by all accounts, used and abused her own son. What an evil, selfish old cow!

 

Nonetheless, he does seem pretty screwed...

 

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PC allowed mother to launder £126k through bank account, panel rules

But constable may keep his job for at least five more months.

The hearing was held at the Empress State Building

Date - 9th November 2018
By - JJ Hutber- Police Oracle

2 Comments

 

Procedural rules in police misconduct proceedings may allow a police officer who benefitted financially from his mother’s fraud to hold onto his job until next spring, as a panel ran out of time to consider sanctions.

PC Robert Carter’s explanation for failing to report large sums of money into his bank account from his mother’s employer was declared “implausible” by the panel chairman.

But the panel ran out of time to hear mitigation and chairman Julian Weinberg indicated he may not be able to return to complete proceedings until March.

Tamara Carter was sentenced to four years in prison last year for defrauding her former property investor boss of £859,000 while she worked as a personal assistant between 2008-2014.

Around £126,000 of Tamara’s £850,000 theft was transferred to her son’s account in regular lump sums, and about £80,000 was transferred back into her account.

Panel chairman Julian Weinberg found all the allegations against the constable proven and said his behaviour amounted to gross misconduct.

Although the panel felt PC Carter gave his evidence calmly and consistently they did not believe claims he simply wasn’t aware of the huge transactions from unknown sources, his mother’s account and employer was due to never checking his accounts over fears he was running into his overdraft.

They were also sceptical PC Carter had no recollection of withdrawing £4,000 in cash at a walk-in bank branch.

Neither did the panel accept claims that his mother frequently deposited sums of around £60-£250 into his account and asked him to withdraw the cash because she “disliked card”.

The Crown Prosecution Service investigated PC Carter but found insufficient evidence to charge him with any crimes.

Mr Weinberg said: “It is quite possible there might be periods of time when he did not check his accounts. It is implausible he should not do so for eight years.

“Large credits were paid from an unknown source and he should have looked carefully at his account.

“Whilst insisting he was financially naive the officer checked his account balance each month to check his wages had been paid into his account.

“The panel did not consider it credible he would not be aware of his account considering the state of his outgoings.”

Although the panel accepted it was a “legally moot point”, they felt the fact PC Carter did not take any steps to reimburse his mother’s employer after learning he had spent stolen money, even after he sold his house for £30,000 profit, “undermines his integrity and credibility”.

Mr Weinberg found PC Carter permitted his “forceful and controlling” mother to launder stolen funds through his account through a dishonest, misplaced loyalty.

The hearing was scheduled to run from Tuesday to Thursday this week but did not begin until Wednesday as PC Carter’s lawyer, Nicholas Yeo, had double-booked himself and was defending a client at a crown court on Tuesday.

After final submissions were made on Thursday, the panel took just under four hours to reach and deliver their finding of gross misconduct.

At this stage lawyers from both sides would normally be invited to submit mitigation before the panel retire to consider what sanctions should be imposed upon the officer.

But there was not enough time left to complete the process on Thursday and although a firm date was not fixed Mr Weinberg indicated he does not have a spare slot in his diary until early March.

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