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FORMER Ukip MEP Ashley Mote was jailed for five years yesterday for fraudulently claiming almost £500,000 in expenses.
Mr Mote, a self-styled anti-corruption campaigner and whistleblower within the European Parliament, had submitted bogus claims for his parliamentary allowance.
He claimed the money was for organisations carrying work out on his behalf, but it was actually spent funding his court battle against a previous conviction of benefit fraud.
In his ruling, Mr Justice Stuart Smith said: “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.”
Mr Mote was elected as a Ukip MEP in 2004 but later stood as an independent after being expelled from the party over his prosecution by the Department for Work and Pensions for fraudulently claiming £60,000 in benefits.
