Military clerk jailed for defrauding MoD of £1m

MILITARY clerk who stole nearly £1 million from the Ministry of Defence by submitting fraudulent expenses claims has been jailed.

- SAM HALL AND MATHILDE GRANDJEAN

Former corporal Aaron Stelmach-Purdie was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court to three years and four months for fraud and money laundering.

The 34-year-old, from Oldham in Lancashire, 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.

He manipulated the MoD’s online platform for managing staff expenses and allowance claims, defrauding the Government out of £911,677 - keeping £557,093 for himself.

A West-based clerk involved in his scheme was spared immediate jail.

Stelmach-Purdie, who joined the Army at the age of 16 and served in Northern Ireland and Afghanistan, 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 military clerks who were employed at the Regent’s Park Barracks - former sergeant Roger 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” having previously been a “successful and accomplished soldier”.