To feel sorry for the fake admiral

[MajesticWhine]

It seems to be a victimless crime and I don’t think he was doing anyone any harm. Given the amount of crimes such as shoplifting that go unpunished AIBU to think this man should be let off with a caution?

‘Fake admiral’ charged after Remembrance memorial
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/gift/4d56e1d99d56fda6

There are different types of medals... Campaign medals, ones from events like the Jubilee medals.... and ones which are for extreme events, like the DSO or Victoria Cross. The ones you see the Royals wearing are the Event ones, or campaign ones for Harry or Andrew. Then the various "Knight" type ones.

If pke of them started randomly wearing , for example, the George Cross people probably would be offended.

As a veteran, I have no sympathy.

He didn’t back in 2019 also.

Granted he may have mental health, doesn’t make me sympathetic, if you want to wear the uniform and medals, serve like everyone else.

@Glowingup
I’d have more respect for his former teaching career than any army thing tbh.

Staggering point of view unless in the context of Nazi Germany etc.

I think of him as a bit of a saddo along with the others who've done this sort of thing. Similar to those who claim to have been in the SAS - never an ordinary soldier, has to be Special Forces.

It was that over the top array of medals that done for him!

And whilst he is a very unpalatable individual Andrew M W saw active service in the Falklands war as a helicopter co-pilot flying as an Exocet decoy.

As disgusting as he is, he did earn what he used to wear.

The forces community are usually pretty quick to weed out bloaters and walts. The quickest and most effective way to do that is ask them their forces number. Nobody who has ever served forgets it.
For those who say its a victimless crime, its actually fraud, and some have wrongly been the beneficiaries of help from forces charities when not entitled . That said, I think a police caution would be adequate, he hasnt robbed or assaulted anyone

Poor MH isn't an excuse unless he is genuinely psychotic and has no idea or control over what he's doing. No doubt there will be low self esteem issues here but he will have known, especially as a history teacher, that what he was doing was categorically wrong. He chose to do it anyway.

Yes humans are complex and there are usually sad reasons why people do bad things but that doesn't mean they shouldn't be held to account for their actions. We all have a responsibility to be good citizens whether our history is complex, whether we suffer MH issues or not.

We let the Royal Family get away with it - remember Anne & her ridiculous dress up costume tendy military complete with plumed hat & cape? I really don't see how that is any different.

All of this. Why would I feel sorry for someone like that?

I am on a number of naval and military sites and he is having the piss taken out of him in a way you wouldn't believe.

Man's a "Walt" (from Walter Mitty - google him).

Apparently he had a mate with him dressed in an Army uniform.

Do I feel sorry for him? No, I don't. He deserves everything he gets.

I haven’t been, but have heard about it. A friend’s family have a VC in the family, awarded to her now late Grandpa. He was a very left wing man, member of the Labour Party, and forbade them to sell his VC after he’d died - he even put it in his will. If nobody wanted the responsibility of it, it was to go on display in the local Town Hall. What Ashcroft is doing is just a vanity project, and it’s awful.

It really shows the police and government priorities.

This is the saddest bit. All the people who valued photos of themselves on such occasions, and he spoils them.

I’d be interested if they did a psych evaluation on him.

Stolen Valour is not a victimless crime. The man is despicable.

She's the appointed head of the various armed forces under her Royal titles. She's part of a history of many hundreds of years. Why shouldn't she?

Plenty of other traditional yet civilian-worn uniforms out there - Lord Lieutenants, Privy Council, Lord Privy Seal and so on.

I agree with you OP.

I can't believe it was worthy of being on the 6 o'clock news.

Nope, no sympathy whatsoever....

Dealing with crime?

That one made the front page - would you prefer the police did nothing? It'll have taken two officers to nick him and one to interview him then write the case file.

It's hardly as though an entire murder squad were taken off a case to deal with this.

Apparently he had a mate with him dressed in an Army uniform.

Was the mate also a fraud? If so, then the pair are obviously just taking the piss, rather than being unwell.

And yet when the Royal Family wear a ridiculous combination of medals 'earned' for sitting around on their arses in a palace, no-one cares.

It’s not the first time either!

So are most abusers, a lot of violent men are sad and unwell. We need to not go any further down the line of thinking they mitigate bad behaviour. He should be fined the £1000 the offence carries, he's done it before.

There’s a bloke in our town who thinks he’s a WW1 soldier reincarnated. He always wears loads of medals at parades and they’re definitely not his! The only time he’s spent in uniform is during his job as a postman.

No different imo to the recent sacking of a Chief Constable who was wearing a Falklands campaign medal and who had lied about his naval career. These people dishonour the Services and no doubt there are parents on MN whose children are or have been in the Forces and those children were prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice. Go and stand at any cenotaph or war grave. That's why it isn't a victimless crime

I'd cut Lord Ashcroft a bit of slack TBH

He didn't go around forcing veterans or their familes to sell the VCs, they had usually come up for auction.

Without him buying them there's a fair chance a fair proportion would have gone to faceless collectors, possibly overseas, and the UK general public would never have got to see them again. Instead Lord Ashcroft bought them and as I understand it helped pay for the gallery at the IWM at Lambeth where anyone could walk in and see them.

I went to have a look at the collection a collection a couple of times and found it sobering and interesting. The closure of the gallery has just annoyed Lord A off, it's also p'd a lot of veterans off - danger now is the VCs go into a safe somewhere, never to be seen by the public again.