What Happens When You Go Awol - T-Tees - Your Answers Await, Life's Questions Unraveled

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If you’re thinking of going AWOL from the British army, this is what you should know.

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What happens if you go AWOL

All soldiers who go AWOL for more than a few days are chased down by the civilian police and charged by their commanding officer (a ‘summary hearing’) or at military court (a ‘court martial’).

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Almost all AWOLs are caught eventually.

Absences greater than 140 days (about four-and-a-half months) are always charged at court martial.

Shorter absences are normally dealt with at a summary hearing.

The punishment

The maximum penalty that a court martial can impose for AWOL in peace time is two years in the military prison in Colchester, which is usually (but not always) followed by dismissal from the army.

For cases heard summarily by your commanding officer, the maximum sentence is three months in military prison (without dismissal from the army).

The penalties are different if you go AWOL on deployment or after you’ve been ordered to deploy – see below.

Are you under 18?

It’s very rare for a junior soldier to be charged with AWOL.

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In theory, soldiers aged under 18 are treated in just the same way as adults – there’s no ‘juvenile justice’ system in the army – but as of October 2023:

No junior soldier has been charged with AWOL at court martial for at least six years.
Only a couple of junior soldiers have been charged for AWOL at summary hearing since 2017 and they weren’t imprisoned for it.

Obviously, it attracts bad publicity to the army to be punishing a soldier who is still legally a child simply because they want to leave the army.

So, although it’s common for army instructors to tell junior soldiers that if they leave without permission they’ll be charged at a court martial and be sent to prison, this hasn’t happened in a long time.

But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen.

You can check these facts here.

Going AWOL during or before a deployment

Important. If you go AWOL after you’ve been given an order to deploy in war, or you’re already deployed, then AWOL can count as the more serious offence of desertion (i.e. abandoning the army) and the maximum penalty is life in prison. (Yes, really.)

No other employer in the UK can send you to prison for not turning up to work. But the army knows that soldiers go AWOL when they’re desperate to leave the army but have no legal right to do so. This is why they punish it so severely.

If you’re already AWOL, you can get confidential, independent advice from At Ease.

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