Colchester military worker received £11k from fraud of Ministry of Defence

A military worker from Colchester received more than £11k from a fraud of the Ministry of Defence. Former sergeant Roger Clerice, 28, was a military clerk employed at the Regent's Park Barracks at the time of the fraud. He was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years, and 100 hours’ unpaid work.

It comes as another military clerk who stole nearly £1m from the Ministry of Defence by submitting fraudulent expense claims was jailed. Former corporal Aaron Stelmach-Purdie was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court on Tuesday to three years and four months for fraud and money laundering. Stelmarch-Purdie, 34, from Oldham, ran the scam for just over a year between November 2014 and January 2016 while he was working as a clerk at the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) administrative headquarters in central London.



READ MORE: Exact dates Dartford Crossing set to close soon ALSO READ: Face of man jailed for assaulting his brother and a police officer He manipulated the MoD’s online platform for managing staff expenses and allowance claims, defrauding the Government out of £911,677 – £557,093 of which he kept for himself. Stelmach-Purdie travelled to Turkey to purchase hair transplants, teeth-whitening and abdominal implants with the money he stole, the court previously heard. Police officers searched his home and found a Louis Vuitton luggage set and nine pairs of Christian Louboutin shoes.

Five other clerks - former sergeant Clerice, 28, Allan O’Neil, 48, Lee Richards, 41, Anthony Sharwood, 38, and Peter Wilson, 55 – were sentenced alongside Stelmach-Purdie after they were convicted on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit fraud. His Honour Judge Philip Bartle KC said Stelmach-Purdie played a “leading role in the fraud”. This came after they had previously been a “successful and accomplished soldier”.

Delivering his sentencing remarks, the judge added: “Stelmach-Purdie was central to the commission of these frauds which would not have happened without his involvement. Without him, none of the other defendants would have become involved in the offences. He was responsible for the management and control of claims to expenses and allowances subject to the supervision of his superiors.

” Stelmach-Purdie used the bank accounts of others to hide the money and lied to his mother, sister and a friend, Simon Lees, as to where the funds had come from, the court heard. After an investigation was launched, Stelmach-Purdie said in interview that he became “aware that people were making claims for allowances that they were not entitled to” after taking an administration job following “traumatising tours in Afghanistan”. Prosecutors said the fraud centred around the use of the Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) – an online administrative system used by the armed forces to pay the salaries of staff and claims for expenses and allowances.

While responsible for the management of claims, Stelmach-Purdie made fraudulent claims on his JPA account and those of others for operational allowances, subsistence allowances and air fares. The other defendants told the court they were approached by Stelmach-Purdie in or shortly after December 2014, when he claimed he had found a way to “make some money manipulating JPA”. Wilson, a former lance sergeant who retired from the Army in October 2015, had £378,662.

26 pass through his bank account from Stelmach-Purdie, of which he retained £149,781. Judge Bartle KC said texts between Wilson and Stelmach-Purdie used a “flight landing” as code for money being paid into an account through the JPA. The court heard in mitigation that Wilson has the muscle-wasting Charcot–Marie–Tooth disease and has been invited to trials by the Great Britain paralympic rowing team for the next Games in Los Angeles.

Judge Bartle KC said the 55-year-old, who works at a ground maintenance company, could become the oldest paralympian to “take part in endurance sports for the country” if he is successful. Wilson, from Kidderminster in Worcestershire, was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years, and 200 hours of unpaid work. Richards, a former lance sergeant from Amesbury in Wiltshire, was convicted by a jury of more than 100 fraudulent claims made between March 2015 and January 2016, involving £434,825.

He retained approximately £160,000 of that sum, the court heard. Stelmach-Purdie initially approached Richards, who worked at the barracks as a storeman, by telling him he was “under a lot of pressure” and needed to book flights, the court heard. Richards was hugged by a man in the public gallery as he left the dock after being sentenced to two years’ imprisonment suspended for two years, and 200 hours of unpaid work.

Sharwood, a former corporal in the Royal Marines who retired from the armed forces in January this year, was involved in eight fraudulent expenses claims made between January 2015 and November 2015, totalling £28,935. Sharwood, from Bromsgrove in Worcestershire, was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years, and 100 hours of unpaid work. Stelmach-Purdie’s line manager, Clerice, from Colchester, who then worked as a sergeant in the department, received £11,278.

90 from the fraud. He was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment suspended for two years, and 100 hours’ unpaid work. O’Neil, a former sergeant from Droitwich in Worcestershire, had £6,615.

80 of fraudulent claims pass through his bank account. He was sentenced to a 12-month community order by the judge with a condition of 100 hours’ unpaid work. Stelmach-Purdie, who, the court heard, was involved in all of the 161 fraudulent claims, was dishonourably discharged from the armed forces in January 2016 after he was convicted of four counts of sexual activity with a child.

He pleaded guilty to seven counts of conspiracy to commit fraud and one count of money laundering in August 2023. There will be a confiscation order hearing at Southwark Crown Court on September 12..