Shattered dream of soldier Scott

AT just 16, Scott Wells had his future mapped out.

He joined the Army at the earliest possible opportunity to follow his dream of fighting for his country.

But a series of events resulted in him coming home to Oldham before seeing action, and falling on hard times which are a world away from the life he hoped he would have.

He is now sleeping rough on the streets. Scott and his mother spoke to reporter Marina Berry.

Beverley Wells was distraught when her teenage son signed up to join the Army.

“I went to the Army straight away to try and stop him, but I was told he was old enough to make his own decisions and there was nothing I could do about it,” she said.

“I didn’t want him to go. The last thing any mother wants is for their child to join the Army when there’s a war on.

“I made no secret of it, but at the end of the day I had to support him. It was what he wanted to do.”

But Beverley, of Waterworks Road, Waterhead, is now reeling from a turn of events which she says left her son alone to survive on the streets, with no money and no job.

And she has hit out at a country which she said he was prepared to fight for, and which she says has now turned its back on him.

She said he left the Army and came home to Oldham to find he had no doctor and no dentist — his records had been sent to Army medics — and nowhere to live.

And, she said: “If it wasn’t for friends and family giving him handouts and feeding him, he would be dead.

Scott joined up on June 18, 2006, doing a stint at Yorkshire’s Catterick army camp before he was posted to Cyprus.

“I was in infantry, a frontline soldier. It was all I ever wanted to do,” said Scott, now 19.

A light welterweight boxing champion in the Army for six months, and twice named fusilier of the month, he was discharged on medical grounds after he went AWOL last November.

He was given sick leave and kept on full pay for four months before he was discharged.

Scott was suffering depression, brought on by the death of his grandmother, relationship problems with a girlfriend, and the fact that his battalion was sent to serve in Afghanistan without him.

Army rules meant he couldn’t fight until he was 18, and he struggled to accept the sense of loss at being left behind by a group of men he had grown close to. That was compounded when a member of his battalion lost his life fighting on the frontline. Scott was also recovering from temporary loss of hearing when a grenade detonated close to him during artillery training.

Moving back in with his parents was not an option after relations with his father broke down, and prospective employers turned him away because of lack of experience.

He spent two nights sleeping rough before the Oldham division of the Soldiers Sailors Airmen and Families Association stepped in and found him accommodation on three separate occasions.

Scott’s efforts to get a place in a homeless hostel failed when he was told he was not a priority and there were people more needy than him.

He was told to go back to the offices of First Choice Homes in Medtia Square, Oldham, each day to see if there was a place available, but gave up trying after a month.

He is now back on the streets, sleeping under bridges and sheltering from the rain under a waterproof cover.

Scott is claiming Jobseekers Allowance, but for six months after leaving the Army he was left penniless because he was not entitled to benefits.

He has also now been taken back by his GP, but faces a wait of up to two years before his dentist can fit him back in.

“Speaking out is something I would not normally do,” said Beverley (45), whose next step is to contact MP Phil Woolas to see if he can help.

“I prefer privacy, but we just don’t know which way to turn.

“I am doing this not just for Scott — he’s applied to go back into the Army and has an interview in a few weeks. I’m doing it for everyone who finds themselves in the same predicament,” she said.

“Scott was willing to join the Army as a British soldier, and prepared to fight and die for his country, but now his country has turned its back on him.”

Scott says his only option now is to go back into the Army.

“It was always my dream, and I can’t see a way of getting back on my feet if I don’t,” he said.

An Army spokesman said it did not comment on individual cases, but took the welfare of its soldiers extremely seriously.

He said: “We offer support and guidance to soldiers and their families throughout their careers with us, largely through our Army Welfare Service.

“Having finished their careers, soldiers are able to draw on additional support and guidance from charities supported by the Army — for example SSAFA, the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association, which does tremendous work in helping serving and ex-servicemen and women when they need support, irrespective of the length of their service.

“Support and assistance is available to those who want it.”