- NEWS.com.au |
- Fox Sports |
- Newspapers |
- CareerOne |
- carsguide |
- TrueLocal |
- Real Estate |
- MySpace AU
Fake PoW Arthur 'Rex' Crane collected $400,000
- Font size: Decrease Increase
- Email article: Email
- Print article: Print
- Submit comment: Submit comment
October 04, 2009 11:00pm
OUTRAGED ex-PoWs are demanding to know how the Brisbane-based president of their national association, who has been exposed as a fraud, was able to falsely claim hundreds of thousands of dollars in service pension payments.
Arthur "Rex" Crane, 83, the national president of the Ex-PoW Association of Australia, claimed for years he fought the Japanese in Malaya in World War II, was imprisoned in Singapore and survived the notorious Thailand-Burma Railway.
On the strength of that story, Mr Crane is understood to have been paid more than $400,000 by the Commonwealth since 1988, but now it has been revealed he was living a lie.
The Australian Federal Police is investigating claims Mr Crane was at school in Adelaide during the time he was supposed to have been in Malaya, was not sent to the Thailand-Burma Railway and never saw war service.
He reportedly told a Sydney newspaper: "It looks like the past has caught up, doesn't it? I am going to have to resign from everything. And then I'm buggered if I know what's going to happen from now on".
Mr Crane, who lives in the Brisbane bayside suburb of Wynnum North, was not at home yesterday. An immediate neighbour said she had not seen him for days. Telephone calls to the address went unanswered.
The revelations have shocked ex-PoWs who described the deception as "disgusting" and "a betrayal".
Federal Veterans' Affairs Minister Alan Griffin said the matter would be "pursued to the fullest extent of the law".
"Personally, I think for anyone to impersonate a prisoner of war is disgusting. It is a betrayal of all the values our veterans stand for," he said.
But a past president of the ex-PoW association, Bill Schmitt, said there were serious questions which needed to be answered about how Mr Crane managed to fool the Veterans' Affairs Department.
"How or why did the department accept him and give him a pension without researching him properly?" he said.
"He wouldn't have had much documentation when he applied for a pension.
"He would have to have been promoted by someone who would have sworn that he was who he was and that he did what he said he did. Who was pushing his barrow?"
Mr Schmitt said Mr Crane had been made national association president about a year ago and had been accepted on the basis of what he had told members and because of his relatively youthful age.
"We accepted him on those terms. But of course he lied to us. A lot of our members will be feeling disgusted and betrayed."
The Thailand-Burma Railway Centre in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, which has a record of every Australian forced to work on it by the Japanese as well as extensive wartime records from Malaya and Singapore, said yesterday it had no knowledge of Mr Crane.
Share this article What is this?
|
FRAUD: Arthur 'Rex' Crane.
|
Also in Queensland
- Islamic College: Muslims fume at school setback
- Petition: Ban four-wheel drives!
- Coronial inquest: Balcony laws 'too rigid'
- Pension claims: Fake PoW 'a top bloke'
- Internet: Childcare centres to be shamed
- Stage two: Traveston Dam plans doomed
- Turmoil: Dutton career may be over
- Pocket money: Parents raid kids' piggy bank
- Prep master: Teacher claims shock parents
- Hit back: QR officer spat on, then sacked
- Expensive fuel: Petrol choices evaporate
- Brett Irwin: Coroner calls for police review
- Mary River: Traveston one step closer
- No jail time: One punch reveller released
- Churchie Prep: School deputy stood down
Have Your Say
Latest Comments:
Arthur Crane is a Fraud a Cheat and a Liar and a disgusting example of mankind, he should be charged and convicted to the highest limits of the Law. No sympathy at all should be afforded him. His punishment should be such, that it is a deterent to others with the same ideas.
Posted by: Amelia Cooper of Cebtral Qld. 12:05pm today
Yes he can get a pension without paperwork but I had a heart attack and applied for a pension. Guess what because I was a smoker at that time I was refused. Reports from heart specialist, doctors and psychologists did nothing because the person doing the assessment was a young female who most likely tried to follow the rules to the letter. Also my uncle was murdered on the Sandakan Death March AFTER THE WAR WAS DECLARED OVER.
Posted by: Ex RAAF of From in the sky 7:41pm October 05, 2009
The major Ex Service Organizations in Australia are rife with imposters. The wannabe chasers website www.anzmi.net lists case after case of ESO's not checking the credentials of potential members, a lot of whom rise to executive status within their particular branch. Make an example of this man and root out the rest of the fakes and make them pay too.
Posted by: The Mayor of Musgrave Hill of Gold Coast 4:42pm October 05, 2009
There must have been a severe case of bungling by the nbeaurocracy, for this man to be able to get away with it for so long. Surely he should have been forced to supply information as to what regiment or unit he was in and that would be hard to forge. He has obviously been associating with ex POW's who could never have been in a camp with him. Obviously a supreme con man. He should be treated with the contempt he deserves and made to feel the full force of the law. At the same time there needs to be a shake up in the beaurocracy, who seem to be getting more and more power and producing lessa nd less results.
Posted by: Ian Borg of Benaraby 4:36pm October 05, 2009
And there are still more to be come. Have a look at the site devoted to exposing these scumbags at http://www.anzmi.net/cases.html Look at Syd Stocks, who claimed he was a POW...twice.
Perhaps he met Rex Crane in Changi?
Posted by: Cybersurreal of Kingaroy 4:01pm October 05, 2009
I don't blame him so much as the Dills who are supposed to check out these stories.
The Russians must have a field day with Australia;s Top Secrets if we cannot know who was in our armed services.
What a joke.
Posted by: Howard of Cedar Vale 3:26pm October 05, 2009
Read all 64 commentsSteve c of Brisbane @ 12:10pm, from what I have gleaned, this bloke never served in the actual army, nor did he ever claim to. His case, as it happens, was based on having been a volunteer member of a (British ?) guerilla unit in Malaya, after being left behind, as a 15 year old with his older brother, by their parents, who escaped when the Japanese invaded. To get to where he did with the DVA and then the ex-POWs association, he created a complex story, regarding his capture and time spent as a POW.
Now with a bit more thought, it does seem a little curious to me how it took 40 odd years for him to come out of the woodwork and yet nobody appears to have really questioned his story... That is, until war historian Lynette Silver sprung him earlier this year.
It's a sordid tale, I've found well worth delving into.
Posted by: Ron L of Carseldine Q 3:15pm October 05, 2009
We welcome your comments on this story. Comments are submitted for possible publication on the condition that they may be edited. Please provide your full name. We also require a working email address - not for publication, but for verification. The location field is optional. Read our publication guidelines.
Submit your feedback here:
Search for more stories on this topic on Newstext, our news archive service. Click here