A former prison officer has been jailed for nine months for a “gross” breach of trust in which he stole cash sent to inmates in the post.
Christopher Stas (31) had admitted two counts of larceny and was sentenced in the Royal Court yesterday.
He had been working as a prison officer at HMP La Moye since 2022, the court heard.
Crown Advocate Lauren Hallam said that, in April this year, Stas asked to swap shifts to work on gate duty rather than in the control room.
This raised suspicions amongst his colleagues as it was “generally accepted that control room is the most desirable duty”, she explained.
On gate duty, Stas was responsible for checking the content of inmates’ mail and putting any money sent to prison bank accounts.
During these duties, he took £100 from one inmate’s mail and £50 from another.
The court heard that, once other prison officers discovered the thefts, Stas was taken to an interview.
He told officers that “he couldn’t believe that he was being accused of stealing money”, the court heard.
But Stas later admitted: “I took it; I have the £100.”
When searched, his bag contained not only the stolen money, but also other prohibited items, including a mobile phone and vapes.
Stas was also carrying papers that showed he was £14,000 in debt. Some of this was due to gambling, the court heard.
The prison officer was suspended and has now been sacked.
One of the inmates that Stas stole from said the theft had left his trust in the prison system at “an all-time low”.
“You don’t expect this to happen from the people that are here to look after you,” he added.
Crown Advocate Hallam explained that Stas had been in financial difficulties and had been working “a considerable amount of overtime”.
She added that the breach of trust was much more important to sentencing than the value of the money stolen.
Advocate Paul Nicholls, defending, said Stas had been struggling to support his family and had stolen an amount of money that would normally be dealt with at Parish Hall Enquiry or in the Magistrate’s Court.
“Mr Stas is not a bad person,” he said.
“He is a family man of otherwise impeccable character who abused his position of trust.”
Advocate Nicholls added: “Mr Stas was desperate and clearly not acting rationally.”
Handing down the sentence, Commissioner Sir William Bailhache stressed that offending like Stas’s harmed the trust that the public and inmates put in the prison service.
He said: “One can imagine that there will be some prisoners who will say to your former colleagues: how much have you taken today then?”
Stas was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment for each of the two counts, running concurrently.
Lieutenant-Bailiff Christensen and Jurat Le Heuzé were sitting.