Jed Charlot, 45, placed fraudulent orders and sold items on eBay after telling his girlfriend he was rich. A British army quartermaster defrauded the UK government out of almost £500,000 worth of supplies after feeling under pressure from his girlfriend to prove he was rich.
Jed Charlot, 45, who was married, placed more than 600 fraudulent orders and sold the items on eBay, using the proceeds to buy designer gear including watches. Charlot was jailed for three years for using taxpayers’ money to place more than 600 fraudulent orders for printers and toner.
He joined the army in 2007 having previously been a police officer and worked his way through the ranks to become quartermaster sergeant (QMS) with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers in Tidworth, Wiltshire. A QMS is responsible for supplies and stores in the military and earns on average £38,000.
Charlot began an affair in June 2021, Salisbury crown court heard. His fraudulent behaviour commenced when his girlfriend started to “pressure” him over holidays. He used his own Ministry of Defence email to order printers and toner from an army contractor before selling them on to companies in the UK and US. In total he took £487,919.80 in equipment and made £349,120.68 from selling it on before being caught when an MoD administrator found they were short of printers and toner.
Tom Wilkins, prosecuting, said: “Between late 2021 and the end of 2022 the defendant ordered printers and toner cartridges from a company in Nottingham. The fraud was discovered by a civilian administrator preparing for an operation in Germany, they were short of printers. She saw the defendant’s unit had spent grossly in excess of the procurement budget.”.
