A former UKIP MEP has been jailed for fraudulently claiming over £400,000 in expenses from the European Parliament.
Ashley Mote, 79, claimed that he used the money to pay for “whistleblowers”.
The former UKIP and then independent MEP for South East England was convicted of 12 charges of fraud, false accounting, and acquiring criminal property at Southwark Crown Court.
Sentencing Mote to five years in prison, Mr Justice Stuart-Smith told Mote:
“[The jury] listened to you closely for days as you lied, protested, lied and lied again about the monies you had fraudulently claimed as expenses while serving your constituents and your country as an MEP.
“During the period from 2004 to 2009 you corruptly fiddled over £400,000 in expenses.
“Your greed and dishonesty were matched only by your hypocrisy, because while this was going on you carried out a high-profile campaign condemning corruption and the improper use of public money in the very institution from which you were leeching it.”
Mote previously served a nine-month prison sentence for benefit fraud in 2007, during which the judge described him as a “truly dishonest man”.
UKIP withdrew the whip from Mote on 15 July 2004 after he failed to inform the party that he faced trial for falsely claiming £65,506 in benefits amongst other charges.
