Post by Dave Homewood on Feb 25, 2014 11:10:14 GMT 12
Former SAS soldier conned Army bosses
By Kurt Bayer
Updated11:53 AM Tuesday Feb 25, 2014
NZ Army Corporal Theodore Marama (centre) during a NZ Army Court Martial hearing at Burnham Military Camp in Canterbury. Photo / Martin Hunter
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A former SAS soldier today faces being kicked out of the Defence Force after conning Army bosses into paying for a weekend away with his wife.
Corporal Theodore Laveta Marama, 53, pleaded guilty today to 11 charges at a court martial hearing at Burnham Military Camp.
The regular force soldier, who was in the SAS in the 1980s, was a respected physical trainer at a Youth Development Unit (South) at Burnham.
But he suffered a major fall from grace when he fabricated a New Zealand Outdoor Instructors Association symposium in Wellington and reclaimed $935 for the trip where he spent a weekend with his wife.
He then lied in emails, forms and officials documents to cover up his fraud.
The court martial also heard he falsified fitness tests, and brought in a friend's external mental health consultancy to do work at his unit without getting authorisation from his superiors.
When he was suspended from duty in March last year as an inquiry into his activities was carried out, Corporal Marama breached orders by not getting authorisation to travel to Australia where he was out of contact for a week.
At the court martial today, he pleaded guilty to 11 charges for falsifying official documents and statements, failing to comply with written orders, disobeying a lawful command and acting in a manner likely to prejudice service discipline contrary to the Armed Forces Discipline Act 1971.
His defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger accepts that he must now be "dismissed from Her Majesty's service".
A panel of three military members, along with Judge Duncan Harvey, are currently deliberating on the father-of-two's sentence.
- APNZ
By Kurt Bayer
Updated11:53 AM Tuesday Feb 25, 2014
NZ Army Corporal Theodore Marama (centre) during a NZ Army Court Martial hearing at Burnham Military Camp in Canterbury. Photo / Martin Hunter
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A former SAS soldier today faces being kicked out of the Defence Force after conning Army bosses into paying for a weekend away with his wife.
Corporal Theodore Laveta Marama, 53, pleaded guilty today to 11 charges at a court martial hearing at Burnham Military Camp.
The regular force soldier, who was in the SAS in the 1980s, was a respected physical trainer at a Youth Development Unit (South) at Burnham.
But he suffered a major fall from grace when he fabricated a New Zealand Outdoor Instructors Association symposium in Wellington and reclaimed $935 for the trip where he spent a weekend with his wife.
He then lied in emails, forms and officials documents to cover up his fraud.
The court martial also heard he falsified fitness tests, and brought in a friend's external mental health consultancy to do work at his unit without getting authorisation from his superiors.
When he was suspended from duty in March last year as an inquiry into his activities was carried out, Corporal Marama breached orders by not getting authorisation to travel to Australia where he was out of contact for a week.
At the court martial today, he pleaded guilty to 11 charges for falsifying official documents and statements, failing to comply with written orders, disobeying a lawful command and acting in a manner likely to prejudice service discipline contrary to the Armed Forces Discipline Act 1971.
His defence counsel Elizabeth Bulger accepts that he must now be "dismissed from Her Majesty's service".
A panel of three military members, along with Judge Duncan Harvey, are currently deliberating on the father-of-two's sentence.
- APNZ
