VICTORIA WELDON
A GULF War veteran defrauded almost £25,000 from the government by pretending he was unemployed due to Gulf War Syndrome, a court heard yesterday.
Michael McGinlay received an unemployability supplement of £100 a week for almost five years while he worked as a car salesman with Arnold Clark.
He had previously suffered from the psychiatric disorder but applied for the supplement just three months before starting work in November 2002.
The 35-year-old failed to tell defence officials that his circumstances had changed and carried on claiming the extra benefit until August 2007, when police arrested him on suspicion of fraud.
At Glasgow Sheriff Court yesterday, McGinlay, of Rutherglen, near Glasgow, was convicted of defrauding £24,419 from the Service Personnel and Veterans Agency between November 29, 2002, and August 15, 2007.
The court heard that McGinlay, a former corporal with the Royal Highland Fusiliers, applied for the supplement to his Army pension after a friend told him that he was receiving it.
He started receiving the benefit and continued to do so while working even though he had filled in a form which said his illness must be "so serious that you cannot work".
The former soldier was arrested at his home on August 17 last year and told police when questioned that he had "just never got around" to telling the agency that he had started working.
When asked if he was receiving money he was not entitled to, he replied "aye".
McGinlay, who served in the first Gulf War and the Bosnian conflict, later claimed in court that he thought he was entitled to the benefit even though he had regained employment.
But Sheriff Lindsay Wood told him: "I believe that you knew that you weren't entitled to the supplement and I believe that you chose not to inform the authorities."
Sheriff Wood deferred sentence until next month for reports and McGinlay was released on bail.
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