Military counter-terror gang stole £1m to buy designer shoes face jail

A gang of military clerks at a counter-terrorism base who stole nearly £1million from the Ministry of Defence are facing jail.

Corporal Aaron Stelmach-Purdie, 33, ran the expenses scam, with the help of five others including his boss Alan O'Neil, 47, from London's Regent's Park Barracks.

Stelmach-Purdie had a love for the good life and openly flaunted his wealth, flying to Turkey for teeth-whitening and abdominal implants as well as undergoing hair transplants.

Officers searched Stelmach-Purdie's home and found nine pairs of Christian Louboutin shoes, a Louis Vuitton luggage set and three Patek Philippe watches which turned out to be fake.

Stelmach-Purdie was known to drive around in luxury motors and owned a £285,000 Range Rover Overfinch.

The corporal, of Oldham, along with O'Neil, 47, of Droitwich, Worcestershire, movements clerk Anthony Sharwood, 38, and Sgt Peter Wilson, 55, and another serving soldier, 37, who cannot be named, all admitted fraud.

Roger Clerice, 47, who served in the Household Cavalry Regiment, also admitted money laundering.

It can now be revealed Lance sergeant Lee Richards, 41, was convicted of conspiracy to commit fraud and transferring criminal property last week after a three week trial. 

The jury took 11 hours and 27 minutes to reach its verdicts. Judge Philip Bartle announced today that he will sentence the gang on April 15 next year.

Lance corporal Amy Sheldon, 37, denied and was cleared of the charges by the jury last week. She sobbed and said 'thank you' to the jury after they acquitted her.

Simon Lees, 31, a plumber from Oldham, denied laundering £270,000 through his bank accounts within six months but the jury failed to reach a verdict against him.

Dominic Connolly, prosecuting, said the Crown would not seek a retrial against Lees today: 'It is no longer in the public interest to seek a retrial. In those circumstances I propose to offer no evidence against him.'

The clerks used the MoD's Joint Personnel Administration (JPA) system to carry out the fraud, Southwark Crown Court heard.

Jurors heard the fraud ran between December 2014 and January 2016 and involved 221 bogus expense claims totalling £911,608.

Military personel can claim for 'operational allowances' such as air fares when they were serving abroad.

Mr Connolly had said the case concerned 'a series of frauds carried out by employees of the MoD who were employed at their administrative headquarters at the Regents Park Barracks.

'Put simply a number of military personnel employed at that location made a series of fictitious claims to expenses and allowances that they were not entitled to,' Mr Connolly said.

'As you will see, a considerable sum of money was thereby obtained.'

A soldier, referred to only as 'Soldier R', told the two week trial £500,000 went through his bank account in six months.

Giving evidence from behind a screen he said he had 'no reason' to question Stelmach-Purdie's integrity, adding: 'He was always willing to go that extra mile.'

Lees, who worked for the fashion company Mulberry, said in his police interview he had known Stelmach-Purdie since they were close friends at school.

He said Stelmach-Purdie asked for access to his Nationwide bank account and he agreed.

Lees said Stelmach-Purdie had told him that he had fallen out with his bank and that he was being deployed to Iraq.

Asked why he agreed to give Stelmach-Purdie access to his account, he said: 'I'd just known him a long time. I wouldn't have had him down as someone who was money laundering.

'He told me he was going overseas. That they had shut his bank account down, he'd had a massive falling out with his bank.

'They weren't giving him what he needed. He had withdrawn all his money and had nowhere to put it. He said "Can I transfer it to yours". I never even batted an eyelid about the money.'

Lees said £250,000 was paid into his bank account in the space of six months. Asked about Stelmach-Purdie, he added: 'He always lived a comfortable life. He always had money, he always had nice cars. He had expensive food, expensive clothes, he always shopped in the most expensive places.'

He said that he eventually got tired of Stelmach-Purdie constantly contacting him to ask if a transfer had been made to his account.

He claimed Stelmach-Purdie then told him to transfer the money to his mother's account, which he did, but he could transfer no more than £10,000 at a time.

Lees told the police that he never knew exactly what Stelmach-Purdie did at the MoD.

'All I know is that he works at the MoD. I don't know what he does, I don't know what he does at the MoD. All I know is that he works at the MoD, that's all he ever told me. He just told me he works in the MoD in intelligence, that's it.'

Richards, of Amesbury, Wiltshire, denied conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and concealing, disguising or transferring criminal property between 1 March 2015 and 31 January 2016.

Sheldon, of Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, denied and was cleared of conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and transferring criminal property between 1 February and 1 March 2015.

Lees denies concealing, disguising or transferring criminal property between 1 December 2014 and 31 January 2016.

Stelmach-Purdie admitted seven counts of conspiracy to commit fraud and one count of disguising or transferring criminal property.

Sharwood admitted one count of conspiracy to commit fraud and one count of transferring criminal property, while O'Neil admitted disguising or transferring criminal property.

Wilson admitted conspiracy to commit fraud by false representation and transferring criminal property.

Sharwood admitted one count of conspiracy to commit fraud and one count of transferring criminal property.