Cop almost cashed in after finding wallet at casino
A police officer in the US state of Rhode Island decided to rip off a casino patron at the beginning of the month according to Calvin Ayre.
The 59-year-old officer, David J Bradley, was arrested last Thursday after an investigation concluded that he stole $1,700 from a gambler at the Twin River Casino in Lincoln.
The incident reportedly took place on November 1 and the Gaming Enforcement Unit assigned the venue picked him up for larceny after reviewing the incident.
Police details allege a casino patron dropped his wallet on the floor of the casino’s Blackstone Bar.
Bradley retrieved the wallet and instead of returning it to its rightful owner, headed out the door and into the parking lot.
Security personnel watched and followed him, then stopped him in the parking lot.
Bradley has already been arraigned by a judge after having been processed at the Rhode Island State Police Lincoln Barracks.
He’s out on $5,000 bond while awaiting a return trip to the courts, expected to take place early next year.
His days of wearing a police uniform as almost certainly over and he could spend as many as three years behind bars or receive a fine of up to $1,500.
Darwin casino employee steals Keno ticket
An employee at Darwin’s Sky City casino has pleaded guilty to stealing a $53,000 winning keno ticket and telling the winner of the prize his was worthless.
Michael Tomas, 35, and his brother-in-law Jonathan De Guzman appeared in Darwin Local Court last Friday morning, where they both pleaded guilty to obtaining a benefit for deception.
Prosecutor Naomi Loudon said security vision showed the moment the patron approached Mr Tomas with the winning ticket.
“Mr Tomas handed back four of the five tickets … he then reached beneath the counter and swapped the winning ticket with another one,” she told the court.
The next day, with Mr Tomas waiting in the car park, the court heard Mr De Guzman attended the casino and cashed in the winning ticket.
The winning ticket was worth A$53,353.60.
Casino employees are banned from gambling at Sky City Darwin and playing Keno in the Northern Territory.
Mr Tomas gave the winning ticket to his brother-in-law for this reason.
Mr De Guzman cashed the ticket as his own and received a $40,000 cheque and the remainder of the fraudulent winnings in cash.
A casino employee found the ticket with 36-year-old De Guzman’s license attached.
The staffer remembered selling the ticket to the real winner and recognised De Guzman as his colleague’s brother-in-law.
The court head that Mr Tomas had worked at the casino for 15 years and his actions were a “gross breach of trust”.
Prosecutor Loudon told the court the true winner was repaid his prize when police recovered the funs and never knew he had been conned until Mr Tomas’ colleague informed police.
She went on to say that this was not an opportunistic scheme, but rather one that was well thought out.
“This cannot be described as a spur-of-the-moment type of offence,” she said.
“The offenders engaged in a number of conscious and deliberate steps [and] that goes to the moral and criminal culpability,” Ms Loudon said.
Most of the fraudulent winnings have been recovered, but prosecutors would be seeking restitution of more than $8,000.
The court heard the employee who originally flagged the issue was reluctant to come forward, because of the close-knit associations of the keno staff.
He was also concerned about repercussions from the Filipino community, to which the accused men belong.
