8 years ago
Friday, March 8, 2013
Army Officer Jailed For £200k Public School Scam
An Army officer who defrauded taxpayers of nearly
£200,000 to educate his children at a top public school has been jailed
for 12 months.Lieutenant Colonel Robert Henry Jolleys, 53, claimed the cash to send
his three sons to the exclusive £28,000-per-year Roman Catholic
Stonyhurst College in Lancashire.
Jolleys, who is known as Henry, kept up the elaborate charade by maintaining to his superiors that he was still married.He claimed that his wife Judith lived with him in his Army quarters -
enabling him to claim funds for schooling - when in fact they had
separated.
His ruse was only rumbled when his now ex-wife rang his superior
officer in the summer of 2009 and asked "Where's Henry?", sparking an
investigation.
Jailing him at Swindon Crown Court, Recorder Jeremy Wright told Jolleys
he had committed a "serious, substantial fraud" over five years between
2004 and 2009.
"This is not just a case of letting things slip," the judge said."On each of these occasions you deliberately (...) made declarations to obtain the money you obtained and make the fraud."
He added: "You are an intelligent man and knew what you were doing."
Jolleys sent sons Rupert, 22, Charles, 20, and his youngest, aged 15,
to Stonyhurst - motto Quant Je Puis (As much as I can) - using the
Army's continuing education allowance (CEA).
This allows service personnel to send children to boarding school to
prevent disruption to schooling caused by postings around the UK and
abroad.
The officer, of Woodlands Park in Whalley, Clitheroe, Lancashire, used
"eye-watering" sums of money - totalling £188,060.11, the trial heard.As the Army investigation began, Jolleys realised the "balloon had gone
up" and he set about trying cover his tracks by changing his personal
status.
The court heard that Jolleys was legitimately claiming the allowance,
which pays up to 90% of the school fees, until he separated from his
wife.He was accused of not informing his superiors of the split - therefore
creating a change in his personal status - meaning he may have no longer
have received the allowance.
Jolleys was convicted of three charges of obtaining a money transfer by
deception, three charges of fraud and one charge of the forgery of his
ex-wife's signature on a bank form, after a trial in January.
Luke Blackburn, representing Jolleys, said his client, now retired, had
a distinguished career as an educator serving in Northern Ireland,
Bosnia and Sierra Leone.
The latter of these three had seen him catch an infection which had led to degenerative kidney disease, he added.
Jolleys had not pre-planned the fraud, having started off claiming the money honestly, Mr Blackburn said.
The Army will be seeking to recoup the money it paid out.
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