A fake Aussie POW

A big story in Australia is about an 83 year old man who falsely claimed to be a Prisoner of War in WWII, and has been paid more than $400,000 by the Commonwealth since 1988.

Arthur “Rex” Crane, 83, … 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.

Now this would be bad enough for anyone to have done. But the story is far far worse. Mr Crane is the Federal President of the Ex-PoW Association of Australia!!

He will not safely be able to drink at an RSA again!

It is not just that he wasn’t a POW, but did see service. He wasn’t even in the military. He spent the war in Adelaide. How could he think he would never be caught? And what ever possessed him to take up senior office in the ex-POW association?