What is the impact of prior good character of an employee charged with theft from their employer?

In R v. Langlois, [2004] BCPC 195 the court explained why prior good character may not be entitled to significant weight as a mitigating factor: 22 There is a parallel, in my view, between cases involving police officers charged with criminal offences and charges against employees for theft from their employers. In respect of the latter category of offences and offenders, it is often said the previous good character of the offender is a factor which should not be given as great weight as usual by the sentencing judge because it was precisely that aspect of the offender’s background that encouraged his or her employer to trust him or her. The sentencing judge is by this logic encouraged to focus not so much on the antecedents of the offence but on the fact that the offender gave in to temptation and breached the trust placed on him or her. 23 For the same reasons, where a police officer assaults a member of the public while on duty, the previous good conduct of the offender ought to be given somewhat less weight than in other sorts of cases. The officer holds the trust of his community every time he goes to work. Primary in that trust is that the officer will not himself break the law.