Former MoD clerk faces jail after stealing nearly £1m in expenses fraud

A Ministry of Defence clerk has been caught entering fake expenses of nearly £1m into the department’s online administrative system.

The individual is facing jail time for fraud and money laundering, the Southwark crown court heard on Monday.

The former corporal Aaron Stelmach-Purdie, 34, had run the scam for just over a year between November 2014 and January 2016 while he worked in central London as a clerk at the MoD’s administrative headquarters.

The Guardian reports that five other military clerks who were also employed at the Regent’s Park barracks – Roger Clerice, 28; Allan O’Neil, 48; Lee Richards, 41; Anthony Sharwood, 38; and Peter Wilson, 55 – appeared in court alongside Stelmach-Purdie after they were convicted over charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit fraud.

The prosecutor, Dominic Connolly, told the court: “These defendants, who were all employed at the Regent’s Park barracks, made a series of fictitious claims to expenses and allowances that they were not entitled to. As a result of these frauds, there has been a loss of public funds totalling £911,677.66.

“These are public funds that had been demarcated for the defence of the realm and the protection of its armed services.”