Paul Stephan Phillips Service Number 222341 is an ex serviceperson who served his country as an infantry man. For that he should be proud.  Instead of pride however, he followed a path of jealousy and deceit.  He pretended to be a veteran of the Vietnam War and wore ribbons and medals not conferred on him.  These acts, if true, are offences under sections 80A and 80B of the Defence Act 1903 and each can incur penalties of up to $3300.00 and or 6 months imprisonment.  If you want to review the evidence of this persons alleged offences, read here. 

There are people on that board who we know served their country with honour and bravery.  To maintain their privacy we have obliterated their names.  But see, there is the name of our hero, Phillips P.  This has been confirmed by the college as being Paul Phillips and that the reason he is on the board is because he claimed to have been in the Vietnam War

Paul Phillips claims to have commenced six years military service in March 1969.  When he first made this claim it was pointed out to him that he would have only been 17 at the time and so he changed the date of commencement to March 1970.  This, of course is an easy mistake to make when you are remembering dates from all those years ago, but read on.  He claims that he did his corps training at Ingleburn between March and September and was then posted to 7 RAR at Holsworthy until embarkation to Vietnam.  He claims to have travelled to Vietnam by ship, a trip of six weeks, where he disembarked at Cam Ran Bay.  He then travelled by truck to his battalion destination.  Whilst in Vietnam he saw Little Patty entertain the troops from the back of a truck and he took his R&R in Butterworth and Penang.  He finished his tour of Vietnam and returned to Australia in September 1971 and continued at Holsworthy with 7 RAR for five years.  He was known to have completed a parachute course and when asked about this he states that he served with the SAS in Western Australia until his discharge in 1983.  When asked what he had done in the SAS he stated, "Do you want me to kill you? Do you know what the SAS is?"   He stated during this conversation that he had completed his military service at the rank of Corporal.   On other occasions he and his wife have been heard to say that he retired from the Australian Army with the rank of Captain and that the Army had assisted with his further education.

Mr. Phillips regularly attends the ANZAC Day ceremonies in Wollongong.  Here is a photo of the proud veterans marching in Wollongong on ANZAC Day 2006.  The crowd on either side of the road are clapping and cheering them, and so they should.  Little do they know that in the midst of the marchers there is a wannabe falsely pretending to be a returned veteran.

 

One of those marchers wearing the ribbons of the Vietnam Medal and the Vietnam Campaign Medal and also what appears to be the Infantry Combat Badge and the SAS beret badge, is Paul Stephen Phillips. See the cropped photo below from the march.

 

What is wrong with this?  He marches in ANZAC Day parades and has his name on the   school honour board as a person who served his country in the Vietnam war.

A brief history of 7 RAR and 5/7 RAR will tell you that:

7 RAR was formed at Puckapunyal, Victoria on 1st September 1965 as part of the Australian Army's build up for the Vietnam War.  The Battalion subsequently served twice in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam.  The first tour was from April 1967 and the second from February 1970.  Both tours lasted approximately 12 months and during this time 7 RAR was deployed on 48 operations.  7 RAR was eventually linked with 5/7 RAR in December 1973.  The colours have been laid up at the Soldiers Chapel at Kapooka, NSW.  Approximately 2,400 men served with the Seventh.  Of these thirty three were killed and 220 were recorded as wounded.

5/7 RAR was formed at Tobruk Lines, Holsworthy on 3rd December 1973.  5 RAR and 7 RAR were linked to form the new Battalion.  The 5 RAR Mascot, Sgt Quintus, and the 7 RAR Pipes and Drums were adopted by 5/7 RAR.

Throughout 1974, 5/7 RAR was involved in individual and company training.  C Company spent the period March to June 1974 in Malaysia supporting the RAAF at Butterworth. 

During 1975 the Battalion was involved in assisting the civilian population after Cyclone Tracy in Darwin.

We know from his Australian Army Record of Service that Private Paul Stephan Phillips 222341 joined the Army and went to 1RTB on 1 August 1972, this was after 7 RAR had returned from Vietnam for the last time.  After his corps training at RA Inf Centre he served with 7 RAR until the battalion became part of 5/7 RAR. 

Private Phillips went with C Company 5/7 RAR to Butterworth on 5th March 1974 returning to Sydney on 4th June 1974.  He was married on 27th June 1974.

He failed a Clerk Admin Course in October 1973 and obtained a C Pass on a basic parachute course on 13th June 1975.

 

The years that Mr Phillips states that he was serving with the SAS are within the 30 year rule so we have not been able to obtain service records for this period.  We have been reliably informed that he did not serve with the SAS at any time.

Since the matter was reported to ANZMI, photos and Statutory Declarations have been provided and inquiries made to prove or negate these allegations.  During these inquiries contact was made with the VVAA at Illawara.  The president of that sub-branch stated that Phillips was not a member nor had ever been a member.  He did indicate in his email that he was well aware of the claims and counter claims involving this ex-serviceman.

We have been advised that on Tuesday 15th August 2006 Mr Phillips attended a meeting at the VVAA Illawara Sub-branch relating to the 40th Anniversary of Long Tan.  It is alleged that at that meeting he asked if he could be excused from wearing his medals at the dinner for that Anniversary as his medals had been stolen during a break-in at his home and at the time his wife's jewellery was stolen. As a result of this request another member offered to loan Mr Phillips a set of miniatures and it is believed that it was those miniatures that Mr Phillips wore to the dinner for the Anniversary of Long Tan on the 18th August 2006.

The photo below is of Mr Phillips at that dinner wearing those miniatures.  It is very poor quality but as shown above we have evidence contained in  this Statutory Declaration that this is the case.

 

It is a sad fact that, for a variety of reasons, we have wannabes in our community.  In the case of Mr Phillips we would like to know why an ex servicemen would stoop to such low levels of deceit to steal the honour of those who served and those who gave their health and lives in service during conflict involving Australian troops.

Government has stated that they see these offences as very serious and have increased the penalties considerably.  There should be no need for veterans to be required to expose these wannabe's.  This is the role of law enforcement.  Alas, the truth is that law enforcement claim they do not have the resources to police these offences. We have been let down by the system and it is left to veterans to police this area of the law, albeit without the ability to impose the penalties stipulated in legislation and without the authority to obtain evidence from the various sources that are available to Government agencies and with out protection under the law when doing so.  This is not the way it should be.  The only way this will change is for the veteran community to let their political representatives know that we, the veteran community, are not satisfied with this farce.

 Evidence tending to prove offences committed by Paul Stephan Phillips is contained within this report.  That is as far as ANZMI can go.  It is now up to the regulatory bodies, the police and CDPP to take appropriate action as required by enacted legislation.  It is also a matter for an affected Ex-Service persons Organisation to take what ever action is required under ESO By-Laws.

  22 April 2007

The case of Paul Stephen Phillips has received some attention in the last few days.  First, shortly after the case was posted on the ANZMI web site, an email was received from Mr Phillips apologising for his mistakes.  As you can see below there is nothing in this 'heartfelt apology' to indicate that he disagreed with the the case, in fact quite the contrary.

 -----Original Message-----
From: Phillips email address removed
Sent: Friday, 20 April 2007 11:31 AM
To: ANZMI
Subject: heart felt appology

Dear Sir / Madam
It is my sincere intention to do the right thing by the veteran community and I have made mistakes in the past and I am paying the penalty with bad health and embarrassment.   I would like to thank My XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX and Mr  XXXXXXXXXXX for their concern in bringing this matter to my attention it would have been easier if I was confronted in person.   If you could please let me know what is required of me do not hesitate to contact me please do not change your address as I have been trying to contact you
Kindest Regards
Paul S Phillips

Next we received an article written in the Daly Telegraph by Luke McIlveen which is shown here.  

This article entry at the beginning of the story entitled: VIETNAM veterans have been accused of playing vigilante and falsely accusing a former soldier of impersonating a war hero.
 
It would appear that Luke McIlveen has written this story either without checking facts or because he was just being selective so that he could write a story with the slant he wanted.  He has, it would appear from the article, interviewed Mr Phillips and also Vietnam Veterans' Association Illawarra Sub Branch Secretary, Pam Bowmaker, who he states backs Mr Phillips version of events.  He has put in his article, a photo shown on the Paul Phillips case file, depicting the Anzac Day Parade in Wollongong.  What none of them have done is  explain (and the reporter has shown his selectivity by failing to show in his article)  the crop of that photo showing Mr Phillips wearing the SAS Badge, Infantry Combat Badge and the ribbons for the Vietnam Medal and Vietnam Star.  This is hardly the flimsy evidence that the newspaper article claims.  Another fact that the reporter has failed to check is the Honour Board at Edmund Rice College.  This Honour Board is headed "Vietnam War".  The other Honour Board is headed "WW11".
 

Below is the full Honour Board we did not show on the initial story above.  Now please correct us if we are wrong Mr Phillips, but does this board NOT say Vietnam War as its title?  We again have blanked out the genuine veterans names but note that one was awarded a Distinguished Service Medal.  Are you not dishonouring this mans commendable war service as well as all others from the school who have served?

This evidence is held together with evidence contained in statutory declarations and, it is believed, it hardly appears "to have picked the wrong man".  You will note that Luke has asked for comments to his article in the Daily Telegraph. 

If Ms Bowmaker would like to contact our website and advise us of the wrong people she appears to be claiming ANZMI have targeted, we would be very pleased to investigate and put right any errors, should there be any.

It is strange and a pity that there are different views between various ESO's.  When you compare the comments of Vietnam Veterans' Association Illawarra Sub Branch Secretary, Pam Bowmaker with the comments recorded in the WA Post attributed to RSL WA President, Bill Gaynor.
 

Philips has attempted to apologise then instigated a newspaper article completely denying our claims and accusing us of vigilantism. We could not consider accepting an apology until a similar story appears in this paper that contains a true version of his behaviour and a public apology to all veterans.   We also hold more information than what appears on our pages specifically for the purpose of refuting the lies put forward by those we expose.  This information in time, as the government finally sees that we are not vigilantes but veterans seeking action against those who steal our Honour and Service, will be forwarded to the appropriate authorities for charges to be laid.  This pathway has just been opened somewhat by the press release by The Hon Bruce Billson MP of 18 April 2007.   You can find this article reproduced in full on our cases opening page and in the story of Jeffry Crase, our latest veteran impersonator on the cases pages.

If you are a genuine veteran, have genuine service and medals it is now time to start applying pressure to have these people charged under the Defence Act.   Anzac day is only a couple of days away.   Enjoy the day as you and your mates deserve it.   Be ever vigilant and take your camera.   Read the press release by The Hon Bruce Billson MP on our cases opening page and send us the photos of those you capture, along with their names if possible and we will request  that the appropriate action is taken against those that steal your service.   This is not inciting veteran against veteran.  It is veteran against impostor.  A completely different war we shouldn't have to have on our most sacred of days where we see old friends and remember our fallen.

This is published in the public interest, particularly that of the Vietnam Veteran Community. All information presented here is fact and the truth. Reports from private citizens are supported by statements of fact and statutory declarations.