RAF Wing Commander swindled taxpayers out of £20,000

A high RAF officer based mostly on the Pentagon has seen his high-flying profession shot down in flames after being convicted of swindling the British taxpayer – and his spouse.

Wing Commander Alex Drysdale was discovered to have hoodwinked the MOD, and spouse Sharon, to say £19,500 in allowances that he wasn’t entitled to.

Despite duping his employer and his household, he was undone by a former buddy, a fellow Wing Commander, who rumbled his deceit.

The con arose when father of two Drysdale purchased the luxurious rented dwelling in Las Vegas – a sprawling four-bedroom home with entry to a communal pool and spa – which his household had been renting for £2,408 a month.

However, he failed to inform the MOD of the acquisition and carried on banking Overseas Rent Allowance – a full hire reimbursement he was not eligible for – in a private account he hid from Mrs Drysdale.

The Scottish officer, who has served within the US since 2011, dedicated the fraud after he was promoted to Wing Commander in 2021 and assigned to serve with the Air Force Warfighting Integration Capability (AFWIC) on the Pentagon.

Drysdale instructed the army court docket at Catterick he had no concept he had infringed MOD guidelines and was open and sincere about buying his dwelling, which he purchased for $645,000 (£508,131)

However, he was convicted after a four-day trial of fraud by misrepresentation and will likely be sentenced at a later date.

Drysdale’s deceit was uncovered by a suspicious Wing Commander Stuart Phillips, whom he had served alongside in Nevada for some 9 years.

He believed Drysdale, who earns £ 130,000 a yr, is likely to be mendacity to him when he claimed to not have purchased the house in a dialog in April 2022.

He searched court docket data to find that, in actual fact, Drysdale had purchased the home in February 2022 and he raised his issues with Air Commodore Jez Attridge, UK Air and Space Attache to the United States.

In an announcement Wing Commander Phillips mentioned he had been buddies with Drysdale for 9 years, that their households would socialise collectively and so they had taken snowboarding journeys collectively.

Wing Commander Phillips mentioned: ‘He had instructed me of his intention to buy the Las Vegas property in order that when he was posted to Washington DC his spouse and youngsters might keep there when he moved.

‘We spoke by way of Facebook messenger and he mentioned he was but to buy the property as his landlord was making it tough.’

Phillips and his American spouse, who has data of the US property market, seemed up the spacious dwelling on property web site Zillow, curious as to how a lot it’d promote for.

However, they found the property had been bought some two months previous to the dialog with Drysdale.

Phillips continued: ‘It appeared odd. I took display screen prints of the dialog.

‘Out of curiosity, based mostly on what I had seen, I seemed on the County Records Office which confirmed Alex and his spouse had purchased the property.

‘I didn’t really feel comfy however I needed to make sure the knowledge wouldn’t be ignored and I emailed Air Commodore Attridge who I didn’t know personally, however knew to be truthful.’

Commodore James Farrant, prosecuting, mentioned that Drysdale despatched a hire settlement to BDSUS in help of his continued declare for ORA.

He failed to tell them, although, that the settlement had been cancelled when the sale of the house went by, which was described as ‘the clearest instance’ of his intention to deceive.

Commodore James Farrant, prosecuting, instructed the army court docket at Catterick: ‘The prosecution case is that Wing Commander Drysdale intentionally and dishonestly hid the very fact he bought his dwelling from British Defence Services with a purpose to proceed claiming the allowance.’

Commodore Farrant added: ‘He opened a brand new checking account to hide these issues from his spouse.

‘He transferred the allowance funds from their joint account to a checking account that was his and his alone.

‘He instructed his spouse that he anticipated the allowance to stop and he knew that she was underneath that impression. She didn’t know he was nonetheless claiming it.

‘He did this as a result of he supposed to maintain and use the funds for himself.’

Drysdale had claimed he made a real error while navigating a fancy housing allowance coverage for army households, and he paid the cash again as quickly as his mistake was identified.

He instructed army police that he was underneath the real perception that lodging allowance would proceed to be paid even when a serviceman purchased their property and was paying a mortgage fairly than hire.

However, he accepted he ought to have emailed the British Embassy in Washington to inform them the sale had gone by, claiming he had supposed to take action.

Drysdale instructed the court docket: ‘Unfortunately I’ve by no means been capable of finding the e-mail I assumed I had despatched. I instructed my spouse I had communicated with the embassy as a result of I assumed I had.’

The Wing Commander mentioned he was happy to be supplied what he known as an ‘epic’ job within the Pentagon 2,400 miles away, however added, ‘it additionally got here with its issues, it was not going to be a straightforward state of affairs to navigate.’

His seven-year-old twin ladies have been of their fourth college in three years in Las Vegas and his spouse had give up her job in advertising within the wine trade to start a mid-life profession change.

At a value of $70,000 {dollars} to the household she started a nursing diploma at Roseman University, Las Vegas, and uprooting his spouse and youngsters from their dwelling was not an choice, he mentioned.

James Hay, for Drysdale. mentioned: ‘He was by no means performing dishonestly. This was somebody doing his finest to navigate a fancy course of who couldn’t have been extra open with the police.

‘He urged them to point out him the place he had gone improper and was genuinely attempting to grasp the state of affairs he was in, he was not somebody attempting to cover or deflect.’

Judge Advocate Andrew Smith instructed Drysdale he could be introduced again to court docket for sentencing as soon as a probation report had been carried out.