A man who falsely claimed he had a career in the Parachute Regiment but was caught out by bad spelling has been found guilty of attempting to pervert the course of justice. Paul Berryman, 62, had admitted to possession of a prohibited shotgun, an offence which has a mandatory jail sentence of five years, unless there are exceptional circumstances. But he tried to avoid a prison sentence for the offence in 2019 by claiming he had served in the British Army for almost 30 years between 1979 and 2007.

Berryman claimed he had been left with post traumatic stress disorder after serving with the Parachute Regiment in the Balkans, Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Falklands. But during his sentencing hearing a judge became suspicious after he allegedly submitted faked documents about his Army service, containing a number of basic spelling errors.#. Norwich Crown Court heard how the words "parachute", "military", "Falklands" and "battalion" were all spelled incorrectly. It found he had enlisted in the British Army on November 23, 1979, and was discharged less than two weeks later, on December 5, before he could even complete his basic training.

Today, 10 men and two women on the jury have been hearing evidence. Berryman had been on trial since Monday but today, jurors took just an hour and 28 minutes to find him guilty. Judge Bate said it would be in the defendant's best interests to give a truthful account rather than just "retelling" what he had said previously, as "it won't help you". He also said he would "discourage" Berryman from telling the report author "colourful stories of supposed military service which are not borne out".

Hannah Gladwell, prosecuting, said Berryman had falsely claimed to have had a "distinguished military career between 1979 and 2007" before leaving the Army due to suffering PTSD as a result of his "violent" service. She said he had tried to make out he was an "armed services veteran" who had served for "a number of years "in order to demonstrate his exceptional circumstances to try and avoid jail for having the shotgun in November 2018 Berryman who is representing himself in court had provided documents, including a record of his military service and a reference from a retired senior officer, she said.

But the court heard "there were a number of errors" in the paperwork causing the sentencing judge in 2019 to "question the authenticity of the documents provided". Miss Gladwell told the jury of ten women and two men: "If this was a genuine document from the British Army you would've expected it to be spelt correctly.". Berryman claimed he was based with the Parachute Regiment at Merville Barracks in Colchester, Essex, after his basic training. But Miss Gladwell said that although the regiment was now based there, it only moved to the Essex location in 2008.

Previously, it was in Aldershot, Hampshire. She added: "He couldn't have served in the Parachute Regiment there in 1979 because it was not there". Judge Bate told Berryman he was entitled to elect to not give evidence in his defence, although the jury may draw adverse inferences from such a decision. As Berryman was not represented in the case there was no closing defence speech. The defendant did, however, choose to say a few words to the jury, saying it had been a "long, long case" in terms of the proceedings against him which had "taken its toll" on "his mental health".