A Royal Navy submarine officer has been dismissed the service and sentenced to six months in jail for fraudulently collecting benefits:
A navy commander has been jailed for six months for dishonestly claiming £53,000 in allowances to send his two children to an exclusive boarding school.
Anthony Gray, a nuclear submarine expert, was also dismissed from the Royal Navy and told to pay the money back.
Sentencing him at a court martial in Portsmouth on Friday , Judge Advocate Alistair McGrigor said: “This was a gross breach of trust such as you cannot remain as an officer in the Royal Navy.”
Speaking on behalf of the board of senior officers that tried the case and determined the sentence, he added: “We understand the devastating consequences on you and your family. The clang of the prison door will be your greatest punishment.”
Gray, 49, had claimed the money when he was not entitled to do so because he had split from his wife and was therefore no longer the “prime carer” of his two children.
I was a little surprised to learn that the RN pays benefits for private school education. But what really popped my eyebrows was this statement by the judge:
Harris said Gray had “dishonestly” completed the application forms to receive the benefit and added: “This is not a marine who struggles with literacy or difficult concepts, this is a senior naval officer.”
Hizzoner had better keep a sharp lookout for the bootneck set. They can be a tetch sensitive about invidious comparisons based on class or service.
“Enlisted men are stupid, but extremely cunning and sly, and bear considerable watching.” – 1894 Army Officer Handbook
I am particularly offended because the quote comes from MAJOR Jon Harris who was prosecuting the case. One might presume that he would be a Royal Marine himself. If that’s the case he might want to google the word “fragging.”
I don’t know the MOD procedures or requirements for receiving CEA, but this smells funny to me.
If he wasn’t entitled to CEA, why was he authorized it in the first place? I know the MOD enough to know that nothing, but nothing, gets approved without eleven levels of senior review.
Using the ex-wife as a prosecution witness? Can you get a more biased witness? She lies, too, right in the article when she says he stole HER credit cards, cheque book etc., because if they were funded with HER income then she wouldn’t have been left penniless, would she? If he stole them, why wasn’t he charged with theft? Liar–he cut off her access to HIS money
As for being left penniless, she had roughly 340,000 GBP in hand sometime between July, when they separated, and October, when he began his lawful child support payments. Poor dear, just how did she survive?
In fact, she is an out and out b*tch, as is clear from the article here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2013586/Royal-Navy-Commander-Anthony-Gray-guilty-53k-fraud.html
In other words, she wasn’t willing to do what was legally necessary to keep the children in the school, likely because if he had custody of both children she would lose any claim to child support from him.
And from this I’m guessing that he’s being nailed on a technicality, that he only had legal custody of one but not both children, and there appears to be some quibbling over when he was actually divorced (never stated in either article). If he had legal custody of one child, then how was he guilty of taking money for both children? His ex-wife
clearly stated that he was entirely responsible for paying for the children’s education–was that in the court order? If it was, then the Royal Navy is a complete ass and a good Marine stomping of Judge McGrigor is well-deserved.
No, the UK court expected him to just be a wallet, not a father, and the RN court, well, the comment on the Royal Marines shows what orifice its head is in.
And what did the children, the ones the French hussy said he ignored, have to say?
Poor man did his best to get away from godawful harpy of a Gallic tramp and still take care of his children, and she still got him slammed in prison. This doesn’t just smell funny, it stinks.
We should put this up at A Voice for Men, or The Spearhead.
AVoice4Men has been down for upgrades, try mgtowforums as well.
Continually deplorable news from RN’s silent service (collision of missile subs HMS Vanguard and France’s Triomphant (2009), the sea trial disasters of HMS Asute (2010), homicide aboard Astute (April 2011) and an HQ officer sent to prison for fraud suggests a major tragedy in store for our beleaguered allies. Someone at the top needs to take charge or have his head rolled.
Let’s just say that all to do with Her Majesty’s Royal Navy isn’t quite “cricket”
The Brits have their bad apples also and there can be no compromose in issues of HONOR and Integrity.
That Marine’s expression may not exactly be a Death Stare, but it is definitely a “within an inch of your life” stare.
Not to mention that damn nasty looking Barret he’s toting. That major better find himself a bunker to hide out in, a bullet proof limo won’t get it.
Quite, and having been on the ranges with Royal Marine snipers, I’d go further and say it was a “within 2.2kilometres of your life” stare.
I’m absolutely aghast. I know so many Marines. NOT ONE of them struggles with literacy or difficult concepts. Some of them are some of the most literate people I know… very well read on anything from poetry to military history. Is the criteria different to get into the Royal Marines than into the US Marines? I think not. I hope he’s passed over for any more promotions. I think his poor people skills and lack of respect shows he should pursue another field.
Opinions like his are one of the reasons we cut loose from those folks. He’s totally upside down and backwards on Marine Bandsmen at any rate. Traditionally they ran the ballistic computers in HM ships back when computers had gears. I remember shedding a tear on reading the names of Hood’s bandsmen. None of them got out of course, and neither did teh kittehs. Bismarck’s kitteh may have survived; there is some controversy.
ME SORRY, BUT WHUT HE SAY? ME NO KIN UNNERSTND BIG WURDS.
U need Huked On Fonics. It wurked for me.
I haz no carezez. I drinked teh blod of Ceiling Cat’s onley kitteh juts owrz in forgit tiem.
I liek teh kittehs, an teh Mreenz. Kthxbai!
Note for native English speakers.
Kittehs, as much as we love them, really do have itsy-bitsy brains, smaller than a walnut. This is one of the things which make it difficult to translate the Bible into Kitteh Pidgin. When I wrote “juts owrz in forgit tiem”, I was thinking of the kitteh mind, which has no notion of past or future. “In forgit time” means in the past, or whatever, to teh kitteh.
Semper Fi, Padre!
I have ten bucks that says the man paid the school bills and was shellacked in court. As far as the Royal Marine statement goes; another reason for my dad to have immigrated to the states.
I’ll put the money to a good cause; the tip jar. The Marine was most definetely in violation of the rule. All the same; F the b… , it seems as if the law is very badly written, and I believe my dad did the right thing in fleeing that hell hole. Of course, after fifty years of living CONUS and a trip to divorce court, he also believes that the early 1800′s version of monarchy should be applied here.
As someone who seems to get more reactionary by the minute, I say that we might do us some good by taking another look at Throne and Altar. Only works with honest Christians in charge at all levels, of course.
Oh, BTW, at least some of the Founders were of the opinion that a Rebublic like ours could only work with honest Christians in charge at all levels.
Sorry, I’m looking at that rifle and wondering why it’s OK to just drill the bejeebers out of the bipod, which is supposed to not flex and be that rock of stability, and yet we have a full magazine well where a hole or two wouldn’t affect the accuracy of the rifle.
Oh, the divorce and fraud thing? No comment.
– Max
The holes in the bipod legs don’t compromise the strength and stability at all. Cut outs in the magazine well could be a point for introducing mud, dirt, rocks, and other nasty stuff into the action.
Those holes do compromise the strength of the bipod — remember, this is no target rifle carefully swaged into a sandbag prior to firing. Those legs are spindly tubes that used to form decent I-beams before somebody drilled them so much a wet sneeze could deform them. There are better places to save weight than drilling out the bipod until it amounts to twin pencils with gusseting.
Magazines would fill in holes in the magazine well, and that well tends to be fairly robust in the metal department in spite of taking a load of only a few pounds. I agree they could allow dirt to be introduced, but only if a magazine wasn’t present and in that case I’m pretty sure the large gaping hole where the magazine should be would allow introduction as well.
If you’re going to drill to shave a half a pound, drill it all and save a full pound.
The more I look at that rifle the more I think the designers weren’t innovating, they were merely copying.
The holes are not in the bipod, that is small diameter tubing, those are just stiffeners.
“Muscles Are Required, Intelligence Not Essential”.
And the good Major was making a riff on a well known phrase of ‘banter’ in the Naval Service, one that everyone present would’ve implicitly understood.
As for the rules for CEA, relatively simple, but we tend(ed) to trust people when they made their declarations. He stuffed it, he gets punished.
How did he stuff it? Is there any indication in any of the articles that he made a false official statement? That’s what I don’t get–he got what he was entitled to in July 2007, at what point did he lose that entitlement and for what reason?
To offer an answer to Lex’s query, I believe that service personnel can claim school fees allowances where their frequent postings can cause disruption to their childrens education. As a police officer, I was posted many times on specialisation, promotions etc and by the time she was 7 my eldest was already on her fourth school. I got my moving bills paid and an allowance that covered two carpets and one set of curtains, but no schooling fees. However, young Ms Hogday managed a first class honours degree in English after her state education.
As for the insulting comments about `Marines` (ours are Royal Marines of course) all I can say is 1) I echo the sentiments of others – beware. 2)Her Majesty will not be amused. She loves her Marines and 3) My heart goes out to those of your outstanding warriors who perished in the helo incident yesterday – many of whom may well have started as bootnecks – lowly creatures my arse.
I would venture to say that YOU provided 100% of child support and alimony and the IRS SLASHED YOUR DEDUCTION SINCE YOU WERE NOT THE PRIMARY CARE GIVER. No more filing as head of household with dependents as silly as that sounds
Rummaging around various UK military blog boards I’ve come to the conclusion that he is being crucified as the symbol of widespread abuse of the CEA (formerly the Boarding School Allowance). Best guess is that he is being nailed for only having legal custody of one child, and that because they lived with ex-wife the RN court said he had no custody. Other possibility is that children lived with wife in Bath, hence were no eligible for boarding allowance, but a different day allowance. There are many stories on these boards of people being out in the grey areas and yet ruled lawful claimants by their CoCs.
Of note: his CO had to certify every year that he was in compliance with the requirements–was his CO lying or lied to? Or was his CO of the judgement that Gray met the requirements? You figure it out, because both his current CO and the Admiral in charge of the RN sub fleet both stated they wanted Gray retained on active service.
As with our courts in the good ol’ US of A, judges create stuff from whole cloth. Lord Justice Gray declared David Irving a “Holocaust Denier” when he never done anything of the sort.
It’s kind of curious that he wouldn’t be told he wasn’t eligible through other channels. Was the person that advised him he was eligible put on the stand? Was his CO? Admiral commanding? Why was he given no chance to make it right otherwise? Does the RN have any idea they are exceedingly unlikely to see since pence of that money?
So, because he believed he was eligible, and put in the paper work for it, the RN is going to be deprived of all the training and salary that has been sunk into the man because some moron got a hair up his wazoo and this was the only way to get it out. Whoever that man is, he needs to be the next up for Court Martial for idiocy above and beyond.
Judges are among our biggest scoff laws. Seems RN JAG officers need to be added to the list too.
Oh, I’ve been remiss! How could I have forgotten! I mean, I have my CD player right here, with The Complete Kenneth Alford Marches on it, recorded by the Band of HM Royal Marines.
I have just now cued up “H.M. Jollies” on endless repeat, and will leave it on until I get tired of it, which could take a long time, given my autistic tendencies.
OK, I am tired of it, now. I will now cue up “By Land and Sea”, a slow march Alford (actually Major Fred Ricketts) wrote for the Jollies.
Am starting to get tired of that one. I can’t make up my mind between “Cavalry of the Clouds” for Mr. Bill, or “The Middy” for Cap’n Lex, or “The Mad Major” for The Donovan. Any suggestions?
I suspect that traditionally dry English humor and cynicism which permeates even their official documents does not communicate well to those of us accustomed to reliably neutered bureaucratic language in American government and military. The Royal Marine who wrote those words intended them for a sophisticated readership who wouldn’t fail to note the intentional irony. Lex’s typically well-honed sense of context appears to have been dulled yesterday (we might hope by a glass or or two of the finest variety?) and others followed the “face value” interpretation hook, line and sinker.
As for the case itself, it seems to be a miscarriage based on technicality possibly informed by issues of character and personal integrity. Cdr Gray’s greatest failure in judgment may simply have been his choice in women… a fault shared by many in and out of uniform which has ended more than few careers.
So what you’re saying, is it’s OK to have unPC humor if it’s directed at people that serve the country. Is the same true if it’s pointed at a less than humorous religion, which might riot if it gets upset? How utterly… “sophisticated”.
So do they often use dry English humor and cynicism in their courts of law, during a court martial? I can see this at a pub, buying a pint, or in close quarters with one’s own… but in trial? Really? It appears from what I’ve read to have been a statement used discerning who he is… he’s not of the lowly Marines, he is an Officer. Joking in a pub is one thing. During a trial is distasteful and boorish.
When I look at that pic of that Marine and his Barrett, I think of what Florence King said, when she was three years old, in her stroller, when some grownup dared to accost her:
” I don’t yike you.”
I approve of that sentiment, generally.