Staff sergeant defrauds regiment to buy cars and hair transplant

Telegraph

2 days ago

An Army staff sergeant who defrauded his regiment out of more than £330,000 to buy luxury cars, a hair transplant and 'adult services' has been jailed.
Andrew Oakes, 39, used his position as financial systems administrator at the Catterick Garrison base in North Yorkshire to transfer £336,448 of public funds into his personal accounts.
He used the funds to buy three Tesla cars, a Mini Cooper and a Nissan Qashqai, along with Apple products, a hair transplant and spent £16,500 on 'adult services'.
He also paid off debts by writing cheques to himself and disguising the transactions by falsifying stubs in the names of legitimate suppliers, including a regimental accountant and tailoring company.
Oakes appeared for sentence on Thursday at Teesside Crown Court after pleading guilty to three counts of fraud by false representation, fraud by abuse of a position of trust and acquiring criminal property between February 2021 and October 2024.
He was jailed for three-and-a-half years.
'Multiple suspicious transactions'
Prosecutor Tabitha Buck said the role as a financial systems administrator was given to 'trustworthy' personnel because it gave them restricted but 'significant' access to MoD funds.
In August 2024, Oakes was quizzed by his military line manager after she uncovered 'multiple suspicious transactions in the system' and reported this to the Royal Military Police.
It emerged the scam first got under way in February 2021 when Oakes falsified his bank statements to try to prove that he had £300,000 available to secure a mortgage for a property, claiming he had won the money in 'the army lottery'.
Between July 2021 and April 2022, he created false local authority and utility documents to claim £1,584 of mileage allowance.
It was in May 2024 that the deception originally came to light, by which time Oakes had written 28 government cheques to himself.
The investigation was then passed on to MoD's Economic Crime Team.
He was fraudulently taking 'extensive periods of leave' on compassionate and medical grounds claiming that a family member had died.
Oakes took 66 medical-leave days and 12 on 'compassionate' grounds, which first 'raised a red flag' among his military bosses.
His military line manager said she had been supportive and sympathetic towards Oakes due to the 'family bereavement' and his perceived personal circumstances, which gave rise to his request for leave on compassionate grounds.
Oakes, who was representing himself in court, said: 'I just want to apologise to everyone I've hurt – family and the Army especially. I was in a very bad place, drinking a lot of alcohol.'
He said he wasn't a 'stable' individual at the time, adding: 'I regret everything I've done.'
Judge Nathan Adams said that Oakes had 'wholly abused' a position of trust, prestige and 'high responsibility' in which he was given 'significant' access to state defence funds.
He added: 'The impact of your offending is not simply the financial loss to the public purse but also the reputational damage caused to the organisation as a while, to Catterick and your battalion.
'Those officers who supported you with your personal problems felt significantly betrayed when they found out what was really going on and it's had a significant impact on the morale of your battalion in Catterick.'
Mr Adams acknowledged Oakes did have genuine personal issues at the time, including the breakdown of his relationship with his former partner, which led to a drink problem.
Oakes, of Station Road, Winsford, Cheshire, received a three-and-a-half-year jail sentence but was told under the Government's early-release scheme he would serve less than half of that time behind bars before being released on licence.