UK: Royal Navy sailor submits fake certificate for promotion, spells own name wrong

A Royal Navy sailor who forged his certificates to get promoted was caught after he misspelt his name. Leading Seaman Ian O'Mahoney had reportedly while applying for his promotion claimed that he had completed B and C grades, however, he had two D grades, reported Mirror. He faked his qualifications in order to get promoted to the rank of Petty officer. He was given a suspended sentence at Bulford Military Court. 

Leading Seaman Ian O'Mahoney faked his certificates and sent them off but had misspelt his name. The 33-year-old cook while submitting his documents for the promotion wrote his name as "O'Omhoney" instead of O'Mahoney. His department noticed the wrong spelling and asked him to submit the documents with the correct spelling of the name, reported Mirror. O'Mahoney submitted the documents with the correct spelling of name faster than usual which arose suspicion among the officials. 

Royal Navy sailor submits fake certificate for promotion

LS O'Mahoney later confessed that he faked his qualifications and admitted the two counts of fraud at a court-martial. The Bulford Military Court, Wilts has given the Leading Seaman Ian O'Mahoney a suspended sentence on Friday, 29 October. LS O' Mahoney, who was serving at the HMS Nelson naval base in Portsmouth, Hants had submitted documents in 2020. Major James Eveleigh, prosecuting, informed that LS O'Mahoney's name was pushed for promotion and he had to upload certificates to prove his literacy. Eveleigh further stated they noticed the mistake in the spelling of his name and told him to get the certificate amended from AQA. 

The investigators contacted AQA who told them that they had not received any request for a new certificate. Furthermore, the grades in the certificate did not match their records. The sailor confessed to faking his documents to military police in March 2021 and pleaded guilty to fraud in July. Alex Rynn, defending, LS O'Mahoney told the military court that O'Mahoney was aware that he did a mistake and "is very sorry" for the mistake, reported Mirror. Furthermore, Rynn told Court that his studies were affected when he was 16 due to severe head injury. Assistant Judge Advocate General Alistair McGrigor while sentencing said, that he had broken the trust and gave LS O'Mahoney 120 days of detention suspended for six months.

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