UKIP MEP admits fraud charges.

[Gromit]

//A former British MEP has admitted fiddling £36,000 worth of expenses after switching his plea at his trial.

Tom Wise, 61, from Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire, denied charges of false accounting and money laundering during the case at Southwark Crown Court

But the former MEP for the East, who was kicked out of the UK Independence Party (UKIP), has now pleaded guilty.

Wise took the money between 14 December 2004 and 24 December 2005, and spent it on cars and wine, the court heard.

Prosecutors said he had spent a year channelling taxpayers' cash into a bank account he secretly controlled.//

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/8344176.stm

Would you vote for UKIP after this? and should similar prosecutions be brought against MPs claiming for non-existent mortgages?

[ludwig]

Yes, charges should be brought against similar fraudsters.

'would you vote for UK1P after this' - It wouldn't be one of the reasons that stopped me voting for them. If people didn't vote for parties that had fraudsters in them, that would rule out all the existing options wouldnt it?

[jake-the-peg]

Like Ashley mote perhaps

Sentenced to 9 months for Benefit Fraud

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6975627.stm

Guess which party he was an MEP for?

Yup UKIP

[daffy654]

I would never vote for UKIP anyway.
All MPs who are suspected of fraud in the same manner should be prosecuted,regardless of which political party they represent.

[jake-the-peg]

Let's not forget UKIP's Godfrey Bloom MEP either

A man so in touch with the people he said that "being called a p@ki was no different to being called a Brummie"

and that "women are prostitutes because they want to be" I guess he'd know he admitted to visiting brothels

He also got on his high horse about people employing their family members and said that he did not

Then it turned out that actually he did

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godfrey_Bloom

Yep UKIP's a class act and no mistake

[fredpuli47]

Isn't the real 'fraud' (better 'theft' ) to put oneself to be elected to the European Parliament and then collect the pay cheques, when the sole purpose of your party is to be out of Europe and all European institutions ? You are cheerfully jumping on the very gravy train whose existence you, ostensibly, wish to end. You do, of course, know that it won't end and you would be a lot worse off if it did.

[Sandy-Wroe]

How many cars and how much wine could you buy with 36K?

[jake-the-peg]

I agree Fred

Nigel Farage has admitted to claiming *£2 million in expenses* although apparently this ex-city-broker doesn't like the term "lining your pockets with gold"!

http://www.guardian.c...ses-ukip-nigel-farage

And people like Norman Tebbit are telling us to vote for the "smaller parties" (guess who) as a protest against the expenses scandle!

[R1Geezer]

I think all the main parties have at least one person who has claimed fraudulently. What about Noo labour luvvie that claimed for mortgage payments when he had repaid the mortgage. I suppose you won't be voting labour then gromit! As a said before they're all a fiddling shower of sh1te, we have no choice really vote or don't vote I guess. Is there any part that's clean?

[sp1814]

If you take the figure of dodgy MEPs as a percentage of total MEPs per party, it would seem that the UKIP are ahead of the major parties.

[ABerrant]

The European Parliament is not the only institution where Members join who do not believe in its raison d'être but gladly take the money. Forget not that all Sinn Féin MPs refuse to take their seats in the House of Commons.

[rov1200]

Seems strange that many British MPs have obtained more than £36,000 but not one has been charged. Maybe you can claim immunity for using taxpayers money in the UK

[fredpuli47]

rov, I think nobody has been charged yet because the prosecution think that what they did was not dishonest or only borderline dishonest in law. I think that there are some cases where it was dishonest on any view. If any are borderline they ought to be tried. The usual CPS reason for not proceeding in borderline cases, that the chances of getting a conviction from a jury are poor, goes out of the window. No jury would acquit in one !