A British Army officer has been thrown out the military and given a criminal record after fraudulently claiming £39,000 expenses for his sons' boarding school fees.
Marcus Heslop, a major in the Royal Tanks Corps, was given a 15-month suspended sentence in June this year after pleading guilty to two charges of fraud over false claims for the Army's Continuing Education Allowance.
He was also dismissed from the Army - which he joined as a teenager over three decades ago - and handed a £39,000 compensation order before it was withdrawn.
Heslop, who had two sons at boarding school, falsely claiming the allowance, which is intended to cover boarding school fees when an officer is accompanied by his partner overseas and their children remain in the UK.
His two sons were boarding at Gordon's School in Surrey - a state-run school with a military history - which charges over £17,000 per year for full boarding.
The 47-year-old initially applied for the allowance in good faith, saying his wife would be joining him when he deployed overseas to Germany in 2017.
But Heslop later failed to disclose his wife had not joined him at his new post because their marriage was under increasing strain.
Marcus Heslop (pictured), a major in the Royal Tanks Corps, was given a 15-month suspended sentence in June this year after pleading guilty to two charges of fraud over false claims for the Army's Continuing Education Allowance
Last week, London's Criminal Appeal Court upheld his bid to get the £39,000 compensation order overturned.
The court heard the officer in total claimed £39,439.
'In clear breach of his obligation he didn't notify (the Army) of the fact that he was not 'serving accompanied',' Lord Justice Holroyde told the court.
'He continued claiming the allowance until March 2019 when he was interviewed by the Royal Military Police.'
Heslop had come under increasing pressure due to marital problems and 'felt his sons needed to be protected by remaining in boarding school,' the court heard.
Lord Justice Holroyde told the court he had 'sympathy for the human reality of the unhappy situation in which Heslop found himself when his wife decided she no longer felt able to accompany him to his new home'.
