Senior airman convicted of BAH theft

  • Published
  • Courtesy 1st SOW/JA
HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. --  An Airman was tried by general court-martial April 17-18 for larceny of nearly $12,000 in basic allowance for housing and for making a false official statement to commit the crime.

Senior Airman April Hill, 1st Special Operations Support Squadron, was convicted of both crimes by a panel of officer and enlisted members and sentenced to a bad conduct discharge, four months confinement and forfeitures, reduction to E-1 and a fine of $11,940.

Airman Hill was an air traffic controller at Little Rock Air Force Base, Ark., when she received permanent change of station orders to Korea.

Before her departure, Airman Hill researched to find locations with the highest BAH rate.

When she in-processed in Korea, she filled out forms indicating her dependent husband lived in New York City, which had the third highest BAH rate in the country at the time. It came out in court, however, that her husband never lived in New York and had only been there once for a weekend visit.

Upon Airman Hill's return to the continental United States, the BAH stopped, but she continued to keep the BAH overpayment for nine additional months until she was caught.
This is the second BAH theft case tried this month.

"BAH theft is especially troubling because the system relies on members' honesty," said Lt. Col. Calvin Anderson, 1st Special Operations Wing staff judge advocate.

"It's a crime to steal the money on purpose from the outset, but it's also a crime to withhold BAH - to knowingly not pay it back, even if you didn't cause the overpayment."

Members who have questions about BAH or other payment questions can call the 1st Special Operations Wing finance office at 884-2994.