subject: Walting - Criminal Offence Petition [print this page] This petition is raised following the ongoing serious concerns of many service personnel and their families, who have their integrity, honour and pride repeatedly brought into disrepute on a daily basis by those who seek to impersonate such service personnel for their own personal gratification and gain. These people live a Walter Mitty lifestyle stealing the valour of our heroes and defrauding the very charities that are set up to support HM Forces, based on such fantasies. Despite efforts to name and shame these fake heroes there is no formal redress for their actions, unlike the USA who have the Stolen Valour Act, which affords the veterans some legal redress those involved in this shameful lifestyle. Here in the UK there is no such law, which prevents these people operating in this way and is a shameful indictment on the UK politicians to allow this to continue to happen, when our true heroes are all too often asked to give their life in the ultimate sacrifice for the freedom of our country. In return they and their families ask for nothing more than the respect that they deserve.
The service community sees on a daily bases at least two Walter Mitty characters everyday that are in the public domain. Despite these people being exposed they either continue "to Walt" or are replaced by many more. The government needs to act to preserve the integrity and dignity of our members of the armed forces, and prevent the further abuse of our men and women who have laid down their lives in many cases, only to be impersonated by someone who have never served, and sought only to gain reward or recognition.
Most of the efforts made by these fake people result in not just talk to impress by misrepresentation but by the wearing of medals which have not been earned, and premeditated actions that have seen misappropriation of valuable funds generated by the wonderful work of our service charities - which always causes loss to those that need help most.
With our Army, Navy and Air Force being involved in conflicts for many years it has been up until now easy to emulate our brave men without fear of redress, however this unscrupulous conduct is even more evident now days and has taken this shameful behavior to a new unprecedented level of disrespect. We the under signed strongly request that the British Government immediately formulates and imposes laws to eradicate this behavior and immediately stop and prosecute these fake service men and women involved in the despicable act of stolen valour against our brave service men and women.
Failure to act in law will result in the continued presence and growth of these fraudulent people. We further ask that a law is passed which make their actions a criminal offence and punishable for the wearing of medals not earnt, attending any public gathering or function so as to deceive any person as to their military service status either past or present, for misleading any person as to their alleged military service so as to gain any recognition or reward and to solicit in any way funds, gifts or acknowledgements which would otherwise not be given had the persons real identity be known.
Please show your support by signing the Walter Mitty hunt "Walting" criminal offence petition, and sharing this pages link on your facebook, twitter and any military pages that you are a member of. Thank you!
