An RAF officer has been jailed for 18 months for a £90,000 fraud while he was stationed in Afghanistan. Flight Lieutenant Jason Fletcher was based at Lashkar Gah, in Helmand Province, when he came up with the scheme which saw Ministry of Defence cheated out of thousands of pounds.
The 42-year-old was in a support unit tasked with teaching Afghans and informing civilians through meetings, literature and radio broadcasts. Fletcher, based at RAF Lossiemouth in Morayshire, received four invoices totalling $59,640 (£35,413) for radio contracts from three private radio stations. However, his carefully planned deception may have temporarily allowed him to profit from his actions, but he now faces 18 months behind bars.
He provided seven false invoices to the Ministry of Defence (MoD) for $214,103 (£127,132) and after paying the bills he was able to pocket $154,463 (£91,718). Once back home, he exchanged batches of dollars at banks and currency exchanges in Lossiemouth, Elgin and Inverness. Between September 11, 2011 and May 25, 2012 Fletcher carried out a total of 16 exchanges for a total of $43,446 (£25,311).
He was caught when the MoD Police launched a probe into his currency transactions. Fletcher, who admitted fraud between July 20 and September 7, 2011, was jailed at Elgin Sheriff Court.
He was also ordered to hand over £92,759 in crime profits under a confiscation order. Procurator Fiscal for organised crime Lindsey Miller said: “Jason Fletcher was serving an important role in the UK operations in Afghanistan. He chose to exploit the trust that had been placed in him to his own advantage, and defrauded the Ministry of Defence of a significant sum of money.
“His carefully planned deception may have temporarily allowed him to profit from his actions, but he now faces 18 months behind bars and an order made to confiscate his illegal profits and put them back in to the public purse where they belong.”
Fletcher left the RAF early last year. A MoD spokesman said: “The MoD has a zero tolerance policy to fraud and co-operated fully with the civilian authorities. We hope that his sentence serves as a warning to others.”