A soldier who fled to Britain three years ago during a fraud investigation was convicted of desertion by a military jury in Missouri, Army officials said Wednesday.
Spc. Oliver E. Board, 33, a combat medic assigned to Fort Leonard Wood’s hospital, also was convicted of larceny and providing a false official statement, according to Army records.
He disappeared in 2022 while under military investigation for fraudulently procuring family separation pay. It provides $300 a month for soldiers with dependents who are involuntarily separated from their families for more than 30 days. It also compensates them for additional expenses such as temporary duplicate living costs.
An Army reservist, he was recalled to active duty in 2022 after investigators launched the inquiry into the fraud allegations. He was suspected of submitting documents containing false information to receive the family separation allowance.
Board was also being investigated for sexual abuse of a minor. He was accused of having lewd communications with a 14-year-old. The case was withdrawn after the victim chose not to participate, according to media reports.
Britain’s Metropolitan Police Service contacted Army investigators last August after discovering that an active desert warrant had been issued for Board.
He had been apprehended in 2024 after British police received tips from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children alleging that he was involved in the possession and distribution of child pornography, Army officials said.
Board was handed over to U.S. law enforcement officials in December.
“This conviction highlights the strength of the partnership we’ve built with our international law-enforcement counterparts, particularly the United Kingdom Metropolitan Police,” Special Agent in Charge John McCabe of the Army Criminal Investigation Division’s Mid-Central Field Office said in a statement. “Specialist Beard believed he could outrun and evade justice by fleeing to another country, but he underestimated the close cooperation Army CID maintains with our UK partners.”
The military judge in the desertion case sentenced him to 326 days of confinement, a $3,925 fine — with an additional 180 days of confinement if the fine isn’t paid — and a bad conduct discharge from the Army.
Board will serve his term at the Midwest Joint Regional Confinement Facility at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. The 2024 child pornography case is being reviewed for a possible second court-martial, Army officials said.
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