RAF Lossiemouth officer Jason Fletcher jailed over MoD £90,000 fraud
An RAF officer who defrauded the Ministry of Defence of tens of thousands of pounds has been jailed for 18 months.
Jason Fletcher was serving as a Flight Lieutenant in Helmand, Afghanistan.
The fraud he admitted, at Elgin Sheriff Court, involved false invoices for radio contracts from three privately-owned radio stations.
On his return to the UK he exchanged the dollars he made for pounds, mainly in Lossiemouth, Elgin and Inverness.
The fraud took place in 2011.
It came to light as a result of MoD police enquiries into Fletcher's exchange of large sums of dollars.
The court heard Lossiemouth-based Fletcher, 41, submitted false invoices for equipment needed to operate radio stations in Helmand.
The MoD paid him more than $214,000, and after he paid the genuine invoices he was left with more than $154,463.
A confiscation order was made for £92,759.47.
Lindsey Miller, procurator fiscal for organised crime and counter terrorism, said: "Jason Fletcher was serving an important role in the UK operations in Afghanistan.
"He chose to exploit the trust that had been placed in him to his own advantage, and defrauded the Ministry of Defence of a significant sum of money.
"His carefully planned deception may have temporarily allowed him to profit from his actions, but he now faces 18 months behind bars and an order made to confiscate his illegal profits and put them back in to the public purse where they belong."
Det Sgt Peter Cassidy, of the MoD Police CID, who led the investigation, said: "Fletcher created and submitted false tasking forms and invoices for radio contract work while serving in Afghanistan.
"His fraud was in excess of 150,000 US dollars.
"Today he has rightly been punished for his crimes."