Top officer on trial over £48k fraud

THE most senior soldier to face a court martial since 1815 is accused of defrauding the Army out of £48,000 for private school fees.

Major General Nick Welch OBE, 57, relocated to become Assistant Chief of General Staff in 2015.

A military court heard that for 15 months he claimed wife Charlotte lived at his new London home – so he could claim an allowance for two of his three children’s education.

But prosecutors say she spent most of her time at their Dorset pad and they boarded at schools nearby.

Prosecutor Sarah Clarke QC, told Bulford Military Court, Wilts: “Very rarely were they in London.”

Maj Gen Welch, who has quit the Army, denies fraud and the trial continues.

CELTIC Marches brews cider on Rob Hancock’s family farm in Herefordshire and most of their business came from the hospitality and festival industry. So when hospitality closed down the firm knew they had to diversify to survive. They teamed up with Penrhos Spirits and used the World Health Organisation’s approved recipe to produce hand sanitiser.

Account manager Collette Cumbes explains: “We are a small team and our main concern was keeping our staff in jobs. We have our own packaging site so we teamed up with Penrhos to use their alcohol to produce, package and sell hand sanitiser, which was amazing.

“We had sold wholesale but set up our own online platform to sell direct to the consumer and we have been getting really good return customers.

“The downtime also gave us the time to plant a new crop, so we planted vines and are launching our first ever range of English wine in March.

“While lockdown was really tough, it made us look for other ways to use our business and hopefully once things get back to normal we can go from strength to strength.”

GROWER Rob Hancock with cider & right, hand sanitiser

ACCUSED Maj Gen Welch