A soldier employed to arrange official Army travel fraudulently spent £17,000 of MoD money on flights for her family and friends to enjoy “jollies and holidays”, court-martial heard on Monday.
Corporal Audrey Urbina, 32, is accused of abusing her Army access so she could have “her own personal free travel agency” to fly “where she liked”.
Over a period of 17 months, Cpl Urbina allegedly booked dozens of flights for her close family and friends to glamorous destinations including New York, Belize, Guatemala City, Miami and Frankfurt.
She allegedly also used Army money for her family to fly to the Mexican resort of Cancun, where there is no Army deployment.
The married mother-of-two also booked trips while on maternity leave and on one occasion paid £263 on top of a flight for an extra 10kg in luggage.
Bulford Military Court, Wilts, heard it was Cpl Urbina’s job to arrange travel for official army trips.
However, the soldier, based at Worthy Down Support Branch, near Winchester, Hants, asked for confirmation emails of bookings to be sent to her personal email address.
From September 2016 to January 2018, Cpl Urbina allegedly booked scores of flights and rail tickets for herself and 12 others - spending £17,000 in the process.
Prosecutor Rupert Gregory said: "This was Cpl Urbina and her family going off on a jolly, on a holiday.
"Cpl Urbina used [the Defence travel system] as her own personal free travel agency.”
He said her use of a personal email address was “clearly not procedure”.
The court was told Cpl Urbina spent £1,900 on flight tickets each for her and her husband Justin to travel from Manchester to Chicago then onto Miami and then Belize.
When arrested in April 2019 Cpl Urbina admitted booking some of the flights but couldn't remember all of the alleged offences.
Warrant Officer Andrew Patterson, an Army movements officer who oversees travel arrangements, said Cpl Urbina's practice of booking travel over the telephone was “not standard."
Cpl Urbina denies 15 counts of fraud, relating to travel bookings and one count of making a false official record. The trial continues.
