Ex-Ukip MEP jailed for expenses fraud amounting to almost £500,000
A FORMER Ukip MEP who fleeced the European Parliament out of almost £500,000 while campaigning against sleaze was jailed for five years today.
Mote arriving at court
Ashley Mote posed as a crusader against corruption in Brussels but used £180,000 to pay off his mortgage and another £67,000 to pay back money he had fiddled from British taxpayers through a benefit fraud.
Mote, 79, was sacked by Nigel Farage’s party shortly after being elected to the European Parliament in June 2004 over benefit allegations.
In 2007, the then independent MEP of Alton, Hants, was jailed for nine months for benefit fraud.
Your greed and dishonesty were matched only by your hypocrisy
But once released – and allowed to return as an MEP because his sentence was less than a year – he abused EU expenses and allowances.
In May a jury at London’s Southwark Crown Court found him guilty of 11 charges relating to fraudulent claims between 2004 and 2009.
Jailing him today, Mr Justice Stuart-Smith said: “Your greed and dishonesty were matched only by your hypocrisy.”
Mote stood down as MEP in 2009.