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Keen recruit

Phil Reeves
Wednesday 31 August 1994 23:02 BST
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Los Angeles - The United States military has discovered that a 34-year-old man has conned recruiters into accepting him into the ranks no fewer than eight times - four times into the Army, and four times into the Navy, Phil Reeves writes. Walter Banks Beacham, from Los Angeles, used a variety of aliases in an elaborate series of hoaxes which ended with his court martial. He would disappear after staying long enough to qualify for a dollars 4,000 ( pounds 2,600) signing-up bonus.

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