AN RAF officer who was sent to Afghanistan to win “hearts and minds” swindled military chiefs out of nearly £100,000.
Flight Lieutenant Jason Fletcher carried out the scam while serving in Helmand Province.
The 42-year-old was part of a support unit whose task was to educate and inform the civilian population by giving talks and radio broadcasts.
As part of his role, Fletcher received four invoices totalling 59,640 US dollars for contracts from three privately-owned radio stations serving the Lashkar Gah district.
But he then provided seven false invoices to Ministry of Defence (MoD) representatives for an inflated total of $214,103.
Lossiemouth-based Fletcher then pocketed the difference.
When he got back to the UK after his tour of duty, he visited banks and currency exchanges, predominately in the Lossiemouth, Elgin and Inverness areas, to convert the dollars into pounds.
Between September 11, 2011, and May 25, 2012, Fletcher carried out a total of 16 currency exchanges, totalling £25,311.
The fraud was uncovered after Military Police launched an inquiry into the large sums that Fletcher was exchanging.
Lindsey Miller, procurator fiscal for organised crime and counter-terrorism, said: “Jason Fletcher was serving in 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 into the public purse where they belong.”
A confiscation order was made for £92,759.47 when Fletcher appeared at Elgin Sheriff Court yesterday.
He had admitted fraud at an earlier appearance in the same court last month.
A Ministry of Defence Spokesman said: “‘The MoD has a zero-tolerance policy to fraud and co-operated fully with the civilian authorities in bringing Mr Fletcher to justice.
“We hope that his sentence serves as a warning to others that fraud within the military will not be tolerated.”
