Australian soldiers draw bead on frauds

By GREG ANSLEY

CANBERRA - Everybody still wants to be a hero.

This Thursday, according to estimates published yesterday, up to 5000 frauds will be marching alongside veterans of world, Korean, Vietnam and sundry minor conflicts in Anzac Day parades across Australia.

So prevalent has the practice become that the federal Government has lifted penalties for impersonating a war veteran from A$200 ($244) to A$3000 ($3633), with the further prospect of six months' jail.

Veterans have set up their own organisation and website to expose people who now want to pass themselves off as soldiers.

The Coalition of Patriots for Military Honour claims the "wannabes" posing as returned servicemen rip off millions of dollars from Australian taxpayers through fraudulent veterans payments and pensions.

"Worse still," the coalition says, "is the insult to genuine veterans of any conflict who find their courage, honour and valour stolen by imposters from both within and outside their ranks."

According to figures disclosed during an investigation by Sydney's Daily Telegraph at least one false veteran is exposed each week by the Australian Army Records office.

Many will have inflated and glorified the time they spent in the military - falsely claiming foreign service, deeds of valour and decorations - and others have never served in any defence organisation at all.

The Daily Telegraph was told by a coalition member that more than 25 "wannabes" had been uncovered in the past 18 months, with more than 200 others at present under investigation and an eventual roll call of fake soldiers estimated at 5000.

Some had become local heroes before they were exposed.

Blackheath, Sydney, prison officer William Maguire, a self-proclaimed veteran of the Korean War and conflicts in Borneo and Malaysia, led a Lithgow Anzac Day parade before his downfall.

The coalition says most of the imposters claimed to have served in Vietnam and claim to be veterans because they are rejected men seeking to belong to a group, suffering mental illness or instability, or seeking access to benefits or pensions.

Most are discovered after a check of military records by the Army Records Office and increasingly find themselves posted on the coalition website.

Canberra private school teacher Mark Wentworth, who claimed to have fought in the jungles with the SAS, was uncovered after his principal complained at the stories he told his students of killing Vietcong with an axe.

Wentworth had never served with any branch of the military.

Nor had Victorian Frederick Richard Heinze, who also claimed to have served with the SAS and piloted helicopters in Vietnam.

Fellow Victorian John Hillier Simpson went further, claiming severe head wounds from a Vietcong mortar blast and finding acceptance from real veterans because of typical post-Vietnam problems - "alcoholism, divorce, unemployable, anti-social".

Other vets bankrolled Simpson into a printing business and Returned Services League clubs put business his way.

"This bastard has openly let real veterans butter his bread for him and all the while would have been laughing up his sleeve," one of his former mates wrote on the coalition website.