"Poster girl" for Royal Navy who starred on TV fraudulently claims £2k of travel expenses - cries in court
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A female sailor who was a face for the Royal Navy swindled more than £2,000 from the military by fraudulently claiming travel allowances.
Able Seaman Louise Dorsett - who starred in a 'made in the Royal Navy' TV advert - secretly claimed allowances she was not entitled to benefit from. The 30-year-old didn’t tell the force she was renting out her home over 400 miles away to a tenant and dishonestly claimed travel allowance.
Since AB Dorsett was a landlord for her mortgaged home in Scotland, she was not allowed to claim the 'Get You Home' allowance. This is intended to cover travel expenses for service personnel.
The logistician writer also breached Navy rules because she didn't ask for permission to rent out her home in Fife, in her home country of Scotland. She has been ordered to pay back the full amount she defrauded - over £2,000 - after she admitted fraud by false representation and failing to perform a duty. AB Dorsett has also been posted to HMS Nelson in Portsmouth during her career.
Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire heard AB Dorsett was a “poster girl” for the Royal Navy, featuring in a TV advert which showed her working and that she was “Born in St Andrews” but “Made in the Royal Navy”. Prosecutor Commander Edward Hannah told the court that her offending occurred while she was working in Bristol.
She added that AB Dorsett failed to seek permission to rent out her Scottish property between October 2 2020, and March 31, 2021. “She was a recipient from the Forces Help to Buy, but didn’t seek permission before letting the property,” Cdr Hannah added. “She owned the property.”
As of 2025, the Forces Help to Buy scheme enables service personnel to borrow up to half of their salary, up to a maximum of £25,000 interest free, towards buying a property. People who make use of this scheme are meant to inform the Ministry of Defence (MoD) 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. That allowance was paid to you regularly during your post to Bristol."
Judge Atwill added that is AB Dorsett notified the MoD 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. The sailor was caught following a logistics inspection at her unit in February 2023 - with her found to be acquiring £2,034 in travel allowance.
Speaking about when AB Dorsett was interviewed by service police about the alleged fraud, the prosecutor said: “She said it was her home residence, accepting Get You Home travel to the property, but she denied letting it out. She travelled to it two to three times a month and during leave periods.”
The judge said she was then shown a 'tenancy agreement' during a second interview. "You said what you said in the first interview had been a mistake and made no further comment,” he added.
The prosecutor added that AB Dorsett said she rented out the property because the tenant’s home had been flooded. For the defence, Jon Anders told the court that AB Dorsett, who enlisted with the Royal Navy in 2016, was “highly regarded” and featured in an advert for the military. He added: “The defendant was a poster girl for the Royal Navy, something of which she was proud and something she took very seriously.”
A probation officer found ‘the level of criminality was negligible’ in her case, and noted that a previous application she made to withdraw her guilty plea had been turned down,” Mr Anders said. In a letter written by AB Dorsett and read to the court on her behalf, she said: “I grew up in foster care and residential childrens’ homes from the age of six and a half.” AB Dorsett cried as her letter was read out.
Judge Atwill said she had been responsible for a “substantive loss of public funds”. Sentencing AB 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 military. "Your decision to act dishonestly has a significant impact on your career and reputation," he said.
AB Dorsett was sentenced to a service community order of 12 months and 90 hours of unpaid work.