A former soldier has been jailed for his role in a fraud that saw more than £900,000 wrongly claimed from the Ministry of Defence’s Joint Personal Administration system.
Former corporal Aaron Stelmach-Purdie, aged 34, operated the scam between November 2014 and January 2016 with the aid of five former colleagues who were working as clerks at Regent’s Park Barracks in central London.
Southwark Crown Court heard that the six defendants benefitted to varying degrees from false claims totaling £911,677.66 over the period submitted through the JRA, which is an online administration system used for salaries, expenses and allowances.
Stelmach-Purdie was said to be involved in all 161 transactions that made up the figure, and the court heard he kept £557,093 of the proceeds of the fraud for himself.
Stelmach-Purdie is believed to have spent at least some of the funds he illegally pocketed on dental work and cosmetic surgery, as well as on designer shoes and luggage.
He previously pleaded guilty to seven counts of conspiracy to commit fraud and one count of money laundering.
At a sentencing hearing yesterday, Stelmach-Purdie was jailed for three years and four months. His five co-defendants escaped custodial sentences.
Former lance sergeant Lee Richards, aged 41, was given a two-year prison sentence suspended for two years, along with 200 hours of unpaid work. Former lance sergeant Peter Wilson, aged 55, received an identical sentence.
Former corporal Anthony Sharwood, aged 38, was handed a 15-month prison sentence suspended for two years and told to complete 100 hours of unpaid work.
Former sergeant Roger Clerice, aged 28, was given a 12-month jail sentence suspended for two years and told to complete 100 hours of unpaid work.
Former sergeant Allan O'Neil, aged 48, was given a 12 month community order requiring him to complete 100 hours of unpaid work.
All were previously convicted of money laundering and conspiracy to commit fraud.
Judge Philip Bartle said Stelmach-Purdie had been central to the commissioning of the frauds and that “none of the other defendants would have been involved” without him.
“He used his position to make fictitious claims. He made fraudulent claims on his JPA account and on the accounts of others,” the judge said.
“While a JPA user should never disclose their JPA password to others, the other defendants allowed Mr Stelmach-Purdie to use their passwords so that he could access their JPA accounts.”
Judge Bartle said Stelmach-Purdie had used the bank account of his friend and co-defendant Simon Lees to help hide the proceeds of the fraud.
“As messages to Simon Lees show, Mr Stelmach-Purdie was prepared to tell him to lie about the source of the money paid into his bank account, and brow beat him into continuing to accept very large sums of money," he said.