Whalley dad’s £180,000 fraud case appeal fails

Former Lieutenant Colonel Robert Henry Jolleys (54), of Woodlands Park, Whalley, was jailed for 12 months at Swindon Crown Court in March 2013 after being found guilty of three counts of obtaining money transfers by deception, three of fraud and one of forgery.

At London’s Criminal Appeal Court his lawyers argued these were unsafe, but his appeal was rejected by three of the country’s most senior judges.

Jolleys used the Army’s continuity of education allowance (CEA), which enables service personnel to send children to boarding school to prevent disruption to schooling caused by postings around the UK and overseas.

His claim was initially legitimate, but he continued to claim it after he separated from his wife and was no longer entitled to it.

Jolleys had been in the Army since 1986, serving in Northern Ireland, Bosnia and Sierra Leone and rose through the ranks.

His lawyers argued his convictions should be overturned, saying the prosecution should not have been allowed to put forward evidence in which Jolleys had unwittingly incriminated himself and that his personnel file should have been disclosed earlier.

But, dismissing his appeal, Lord Justice Pitchford said the argument about the incriminating evidence was ‘hopeless’ and there was no reason to doubt the safety of the convictions.

He added: “We conclude that he has failed to demonstrate that there was, in his personnel file, material which may have had an impact upon either his defence case at trial or the jury’s verdict.”