Defence against charges of fraud with military payments

What is happening

These cases grow out of financial service audits and material from the military prosecutor's office. The trigger is a discrepancy in the paperwork: an order issued later than the events, figures in a pay sheet that do not match the unit's records, a payment that continued after a change of status. A discrepancy on its own says nothing about the man's intent.

The central question in such a case is who prepared and signed the documents and what the serviceman knew about their content. Payments pass through several services, and a serviceman's role in that chain is often quite different from the one described in the ruling. This is tested against signatures, orders and the route the documents took.

The calculation is a separate line of work. The loss is often counted over the whole period of payment, even though part of it rested on valid documents. We do not judge guilt — that is for the court. We check the calculation, the documents and the sequence of events, and press for the findings to rest on documents rather than assumption.

What the law says

• Charges over payments are brought under the fraud provisions, including fraud in obtaining benefits; the offence requires proved deception and intent.
• The grounds for the payments themselves come from the legislation on service pay and on the status of servicemen, and from the unit's orders and accounting documents.
• An error in the calculation, a mistake by the personnel or financial service and deliberate deception are different situations, and a case has to distinguish between them.
• The amount alleged affects the classification, so the calculation of the loss is a matter to be tested in its own right, not taken as given.
• Sums overpaid may be pursued in a separate civil claim for unjust enrichment, independently of the criminal case.
• Cases against servicemen are investigated by the military investigative bodies and heard by a military court; the right to a defence advocate applies from the first interview and from the audit stage.

What we do

• We enter the case as defence advocates and attend interviews, confrontations and other investigative steps involving our client.
• We map the paper trail: who prepared the orders and pay sheets, who signed them, how the payments were credited and where the discrepancy arose.
• We check the calculation of the amount alleged and object to periods and items included in it without proper basis.
• We request orders, pay statements, pay sheets, correspondence and accounting records from the unit and the financial body.
• We apply for personnel and financial service staff to be interviewed and for accounting and handwriting examinations.
• We prepare the position for trial, appear at the military court and handle the related civil claim for recovery of the sums.

What we need from you

• Service documents: the contract, extracts from orders, a certificate of service, posting documents.
• All documents on the disputed payments: pay statements, pay sheets, certificates of amounts credited, bank statements.
• Audit material and documents from the investigator: audit reports, rulings, records of interview, charging documents.
• Medical records and wound documentation, where the payment was connected with them.
• Correspondence with the personnel and financial services, and reports and requests bearing a receipt stamp.
• Character references from the unit, details of family and dependants, records of any decorations.