An able seaman who forged a document and claimed he was being sent on “classified redeployment” overseas in order to avoid paying a $2,280 fee for leaving his Sydney property lease early has pleaded guilty to a military court.
Sean Ellicott was charged with two offences under the Defence Force Discipline Act in November 2014 over allegations he forged a document in order to secure an early exit from his residential lease.
Ellicott had been living at a property in Wollstonecraft, Sydney but wanted to end his lease early and move to a place in Mosman.
Ellicott had sought advice from a superior officer, Edgard Jabre, about whether he could end his lease early.
Jabre gave him a template “request for termination of lease at short notice” form, which he stressed was only an example and not intended for him to use, military prosecutor Kent Browning told the court.
But Ellicott took the form and forged Jabre’s signature and sent it to Shant Komchain at Marriott Lane real estate. Ellicott also told the estate agent he had been sent on a classified deployment overseas on board the naval vessel HMAS Penguin. Komchain waived the $2,280 fee.
“The accused was never, and knew he was never, to undertake classified training at HMAS Penguin,” Browning told the court martial.
“The accused forged the signature of PMOC Jabre on the document. The accused emailed a scanned copy of the document to Mr Komchain.”
The two offences Ellicott was charged with were using a false document and forgery for using the document “with the intention that he would use it to dishonestly induce ...[Komchain] to accept it as genuine”. .
On Tuesday he pleaded guilty to both charges at a restricted court martial.
The allegations emerged after another person on board the navy vessel Ellicott was stationed at found a copy of the document and alerted a superior officer.
Ellicott called on three character witnesses as well as written statements from fellow navy personnel.
The court was told Ellicott has since repaid the $2,280 to the real estate agent.
The panel is set to make a decision on sentencing for the case on Wednesday.
Editor’s note: this article originally, incorrectly, described Ellicott as an officer.
