Former Burnaby RCMP officer going to jail for stealing cocaine

A former Burnaby RCMP peace officer has been sentenced to 14 months in jail for stealing a kilogram of cocaine from a police evidence locker in 2011, according to Burnaby Now.

Gary Read had been a full time exhibit officer with the Burnaby RCMP since 1983 at the time of the incident. He was found guilty back in February, but was just sentenced this summer.

Read failed a lie detector test that aimed to find out if he stole the cocaine that had a street value of between $22,000 and $44,000. He admitted he took the drugs, but only because he was frustrated that auditors entered his area during an audit of the entire station.

“While in there, you became very frustrated and angry and that was because they disrespected you,” said Provincial Court Judge Paul Meyers in his ruling.

“They were moving stuff all around, they were not keeping with protocols and, according to what you had said to the police at the time of the interrogation and then through your counsel, is that the frustration levels for you just got higher and higher and higher and the anger was there and that, in a moment of crazy passion, you took the drugs from one of the exhibit boxes. You took it home and when you got home, you flushed it down the sink.”

Meyers said he was surprised at Read’s actions considering he had no history of stealing in his 28 years on the job, no mental health issues and no alcohol, addiction, or financial issues.

As such, the judge concluded he did not need to be rehabilitated.

Meyers said Read was entitled to a slightly lower punishment since he was Special Constable and not a full-fledged RCMP member, but jail time was necessary as a deterrent to other people in positions of trust who might steal from the police.