ex-UKIP MEP jailed for stealing £39000 from taxpayers

[alexxxxx]

MEP jailed over expenses fiddle


Tom Wise represented East Anglia in the European Parliament

A former British MEP who admitted fiddling £39,000 worth of expenses has been jailed for two years.
Tom Wise, 61, from Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire, initially denied false accounting and money laundering during the case at Southwark Crown Court
But the former MEP for the East, who was thrown out of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), later pleaded guilty.
Wise took the money between 14 December 2004 and 24 December 2005, and spent it on cars and wine.
The court heard he had spent a year channelling taxpayers' cash into a bank account he secretly controlled.
Wise, of Ship Road in Leighton Buzzard, pretended the £3,000 "secretarial assistance allowance" he received every month was for his 62-year-old researcher Lindsay Jenkins.

MEP jailed over expenses fiddle

But after paying her just £500 each month he spent the rest "in support of his own interests", the court was told.
The court heard that when the fraud was exposed by a national newspaper four years ago the MEP "took steps to cancel the claim and repay the money".
"He did so because he had been caught and was trying to minimise the trouble he was in," the prosecution said.
Had it not been discovered, the scam could have lasted five years and netted £180,000, the jury heard.
Blank documents
Wise, a former policeman, previously represented UKIP before he had the party whip withdrawn in 2007 over the scandal.
After initially denying the charge, just before UKIP leader Nigel Farage was to give evidence against him, Wise confessed.
He said he was entirely to blame and Ms Jenkins, whom he had asked to sign blank documents, was innocent.
As a result his former researcher, of Queens Club Gardens, Barons Court, west London, who had also been on trial, was cleared of the false accounting charge as well as an allegation of using criminal property.

[Ardemax]

lol at "expenses fiddle"

still can't believe he used our money aswell

[-:Undertaker:-]

Good and two years isn't enough.. and good on Farage and UKIP for taking action straight away unlike the other three main parties.

[Ardemax]

"Tom Wise, 61, from Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire, initially denied false accounting and money laundering"

he denied it? like some of the other parties.....

[-:Undertaker:-]

Yes, however he was thrown out of the party because of this whereas all the other parties are still full of the MPs who fiddled our money.

[ifuseekamy]

Oh well all politicians are corrupt. They should take a leaf out of the Queen's book and try maybe investing in the country or actually being honest.

[Ardemax]

lol at the -rep from a jerk