THE military record of Captain Sir Alan McIlwraith, KBE, DSO, MC, a decorated war hero, seemed almost too good to be true: top of his class at Sandhurst, a senior adviser to Nato by his early 20s and a string of medals from tours in Northern Ireland, Sierra Leone, Afghanistan and Kosovo.

Friends and acquaintances appeared not to notice that his uniform was two sizes too big, nor that his scrawny physique did not quite fit the profile of his entry in Wikipedia, the internet encylopaedia, which described him as “a hero that the UK and Nato can look to in times of trouble”. But the deception, which culminated in his posing in full dress uniform at a charity awards ceremony, was ended yesterday after he was exposed as a fraud who worked at a call centre.

The nameplate on his desk at the Dell Computer Corporation in Glasgow says “Sir Alan McIlwraith” but as plain ordinary Mr McIlwraith he answers calls from customers who need their computers fixing.

Yesterday a receptionist at the call centre, where Mr McIlwraith, 28, often turns up in his army uniform, said that he was not at work. “There is no comment on this,” she said.

A spokeswoman for the company said: “Dell is investigating this situation and does not comment on speculation.”

The Ministry of Defence confirmed that Mr McIlwraith had never been in the Army. A spokeswoman said: “He doesn’t show up on any of our records. He has never been an officer — he has never even been in the cadets at school. I can confirm that he is a fraud. May I suggest that you try the space cadet organisation?”

It is not clear how long he had been posing as a war hero but in his most brazen deception to date he was invited to an awards ceremony sponsored by the NCH children’s charity last month. His photograph and that of a female companion appear in this month’s No. 1, a Scottish celebrity magazine, with the caption “Lady Shona and Sir Alan McIlwraith”. NCH said that it was investigating how he had come to be involved with the charity.

Buckingham Palace said that it had no record of an Alan McIlwraith receiving a knighthood, and the MoD’s Army Gallantry Section said that no Alan McIlwraith had received a Military Cross.

Perhaps the most damning denial, however, came from his mother, who told the Glasgow-based Daily Record: “I know he’s not in the Army and never has been.”

Mr McIlwraith told the newspaper that his knighthood was for “services to the Crown”, adding: “Prince Charles did the whole sword bit.” Asked why the Army had no record of him, he said: “I was in the SAS.”

Mr McIlwraith could not be contacted yesterday. Wikipedia said that his entry had been deleted.

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