Royal Navy poster girl fraudulently claimed £2k in travel expenses
The female sailor was part of a recruitment campaign for the Royal Navy.
A Royal Navy 'poster girl' who starred in a TV advert conned the military out of more than £2,000 in fraudulent travel expenses.
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Able Seaman Louise Dorsett, 30, who starred in a “Made in the Royal Navy” TV advert, did not tell the Navy she was renting out her home some 400 miles away to a tenant and claimed travel allowance dishonestly.
Because she was a landlord for her mortgaged home in Scotland, Dorsett was not eligible for the 'Get You Home' allowance that is intended to cover travel costs for service personnel.
It was found that she had also breached Navy rules by not asking for permission to rent out the property in Fife, in her home country of Scotland.
She has been ordered to pay back the full amount of £2,034 after she admitted fraud by false representation and failing to perform a duty.
She told the court in an emotional address that her childhood in foster care had been difficult.
Prosecutor Commander Edward Hannah told the court that her offending occurred while she was working in Bristol.
Cdr Hannah said Dorsett failed to seek permission to rent out her Scottish property between October 2 2020 and March 31 2021.
Cdr Hannah said: "She was a recipient from the Forces Help to Buy, but didn't seek permission before letting the property. She owned the property."
As of 2025, the Forces Help to Buy scheme enables service people to borrow up to half of their salary, up to a maximum of £25,000 interest free towards the purchase of a property.
People who make use of this scheme are meant to inform the Ministry of Defence if they want to rent out the property.
Between the same dates, she dishonestly claimed "home travel allowance to her property in Fife" from a naval support unit in Bristol where she was based at the time.
Assistant Judge Advocate General John Atwill said: "That allowance is designed to compensate service personnel in being posted to a place far from their home, to allow them to return to that home."
He continued: "That allowance was paid to you regularly during your post to Bristol."
He said that if she notified the Ministry of Defence that she was renting out her Scottish property, this would "bring attention" to the fact that she was ineligible for the travel allowance she had been claiming.
Sentencing Dorsett, the judge said it was a "tragedy" to see her in court, and noted that she came from "such a difficult starting point" before joining the navy.
"Your decision to act dishonestly has a significant impact on your career and reputation," he said.
The judge sentenced her to a service community order of 12 months and 90 hours of unpaid work.
Dorsett, who was also posted at HMS Nelson in Portsmouth, is no longer serving in the Royal Navy for unrelated reasons.