Jail for officer who paid fees with benefits

A “dishonest” senior Army officer has been jailed for 21 months for falsely claiming more than £48,000 in allowances to pay for his children’s boarding school fees.

Major General Nick Welch was convicted of a single charge of fraud following a four-week court martial trial at Bulford Military Court.

The court was told the 57-year-old general, who left the military in 2018, had applied for the allowance on the basis that both he and his wife, Charlotte, would not be living close to the children’s schools in Dorset.

But the prosecution stated that Mrs Welch, 54, actually spent most of her time at the family’s cottage in Blandford Forum, Dorset, close to the two schools rather than at their allocated military accommodation in Putney, London.

Judge Advocate General Alan Large said the panel of senior officers sentenced Welch, who is the most senior officer to face court martial since 1815, “on the basis the defendant behaved dishonestly throughout”.

As well as the custodial sentence, Welch was retrospectively dismissed from the Army. He was also ordered to pay back the fraudulently claimed money.

Judge Large told Welch: “A disciplined organisation such as the Army relies on those in rank and authority to set an example and to be beyond reproach.

“The higher your rank, the more important it is that you uphold the values and standards of the Army in which you serve and when an officer of the rank of major general offends as you have, the potential to erode discipline and undermine morale is considerable.”