Colonel ‘falsely claimed £100k for school fees’

Officer is accused of abusing grant system

AN ARMY colonel wrongly claimed nearly £100,000 of public money to pay for school fees, a court martial heard yesterday.

Roddy Lee, 52, was initially entitled to an education grant that helps service families avoid the disruption caused by far-flung postings.

But he became ineligible when he was posted in 2015 to a base in Hampshire because it did not require him to move more than 50 miles.

Col Lee is accused of getting around the 50-mile rule by obtaining family accommodation at another base, RAF Odiham, 50.9 miles from his home. However his wife and children are said not to have moved there.

During the school year 2015/16, he claimed £98,306 for fees for Marlborough College and two prep schools.

Martyn Bowyer, prosecuting, told the hearing in Bulford, Wiltshire: ‘The prosecution case is that it was never his intention to move his family from the address in Wiltshire, thereby frustrating the principles of the continuity of education allowance.’

The court was told that two of his children, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were at £ 38,000- a- year Marlborough when he is alleged to have abused the allowance. Princess Eugenie and the Duchess of Cambridge are former pupils. Col Lee’s two other children were at prep schools in Blandford, Dorset, and Salisbury, Wiltshire.

Mr Bowyer said he did use the property at RAF Odiham and that his wife, a junior doctor, joined him from ‘time to time’.

‘But the case against him was that his true home was his family home in Wiltshire,’ he said. ‘The RAF Odiham address was more like a week-day crash pad than a family home. We suggest that Dr Lee did not move with her husband to RAF Odiham, there was no family mobility.’

Mr Bowyer showed photographs of the house at RAF Odiham where there was a ‘ relatively sparse bathroom’ and the wardrobes were ‘pretty much empty’.

He said the address was less than a mile over the 50-mile moving requirement and said the neighbours rarely saw the colonel or his family.

Mr Bowyer added: ‘ These are serious allegations of dishonesty against a senior Army officer, which are not brought lightly.

‘ Given the sums of money involved in this case it’s obvious how important regulations are. This is taxpayers’ money.’

Col Lee, formerly of the Royal Artillery, denies three charges of fraud. He was arrested in September 2016.

The hearing, which is expected to last ten days, continues.