I can’t pay school fees on my ‘lofty’ £120k salary
General accused of £50k con tells court...
AN ARMY general accused of cheating the taxpayer out of almost £50,000 to send his children to private school claimed he could not afford the fees despite his ‘lofty’ salary, a court martial heard yesterday.
Major General Nick Welch, 57, is accused of fraudulently claiming £ 48,000 under a children’s education allowance for service personnel posted away from home.
The money, called a Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA), is meant to help children remain in the same school regardless of where their parents are relocated on assignment.
But the cash is only given out if both parents move away from their children together.
Welch is accused of telling the Army that his wife Charlotte would be living with him after he took on the role of assistant chief of the general staff at the Ministry of Defence headquarters in London – thought to come with a £120,000 salary. This would have permitted him to claim taxpayer money for two of his children to board at schools in Dorset.
But Mrs Welch, 54, in fact spent most of her time at the family’s £ 800,000 country home in Blandford Forum, Dorset, which is close to her children’s schools, the prosecution said. Prosecutor Sarah Clarke QC said that during the 15 months Welch claimed his wife was living in Putney, southwest London, she actually spent 355 days absent from the home.
The court also heard that Welch had voiced concerns about losing the allowance when he initially took the role. In an email to a colleague he wrote: ‘It throws my domestic arrangements into disarray.
‘If I’m to retain CEA Charlotte would have to come with me to London... If Charlotte moves to Dorset then we lose CEA.
‘Even with a lofty major general salary I can’t afford private school fees for [one of his children] so would need a reduction in that.’
He and his wife ended up sending one child to the £22,500-a-year Hanford School, while the other child was sent to the £37,000-ayear Clayesmore School – both in Dorset. The prosecution also said that Mrs Welch’s phone records, credit card purchases and Amazon deliveries put her in Dorset most of the time.
Texts between the couple were also presented by the prosecution which they said proved that Welch was living in London, while his wife was in the West Country. In one message Welch, who said he was sat in a pub, texted his wife that he was ‘just wishing I had you opposite me to ogle at’.
Another read: ‘ Morning gorgeous. I guess you are sat up waiting for the workmen, I’m sat at Clapham Junction waiting for a train to Andover. Oh, the high life. Missing you.’
The general, who was made an OBE, is the most senior officer to face court martial since Lieutenant General Sir John Murray in 1813. He was found guilty of abandoning siege guns at the second siege of Tarragona during the Peninsular War.
Welch is accused of illegally claiming £48,388 through the CEA over 15 months. He denies fraud. The trial at Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire continues.
‘I can’t afford private school’