Airman Creates “Ghost” Detachment to Obtain £7000

Grey River Argus, 1 October 1948, Page 6

Airman Creates “Ghost” Detachment to Obtain £7000

LONDON, September 28.

Gerald Leslie Archer, a 20-year-old Royal Aircraftman, who was sentenced to two years’ hard labour by an Air Force court martial for converting £1,085 to his own use, admitted that he obtained the idea cn which his fraud was based on reading an account of a system which existed in the British Navy in Nelson's day when a number of captains and ships’ paymasters created a “ghost” crew so that they could draw the fictitious crew’s pay and rations for themselves.

The Deputy- Judge Advocate-Gen-eral, summing up the case against Archer, said it was one of the most astounding he had ever heard: Documents showed that Archer, in conjunction with an N.C.0., had created a fictitious detachment of 37 men, who had been transferred from one station to another in such a manner that Archer was able to appropriate their pay. ° The discrepancies were only found after Archer had left his station on demobilisation leave. On the dya before Archer left the station, he gave a champagne farewell party which, it had now been found, he paid for from the stolen money. Fraudulent accounts, prepared by Archer included grants to benevolent funds, pensions, and even accounts for barrack room damage. Owing to the disclosure of the methods employed by. Archer, the Royal Air Force pay and accounting procedure had been altered. Corporal Leslie Carter, aged 20, who was charged jointly with Archer, was sentenced to six months’ hard labour and ordered to be reduced to the ranks.