UKIP MEP Janice Atkinson could face fraud charges after police launched an investigation yesterday into claims that she fiddled food expenses.

Ms Atkinson, who was caught calling a Thai woman “ting tong” last year, has been suspended from Ukip pending a disciplinary panel on Monday.

Now detectives from Kent and Essex serious crime squads are examining allegations that her office deliberately tried to overcharge the European Parliament.

Labour shadow cabinet minister Jon Trickett said: “Two Ukip candidates have been suspended and one has resigned in just 24 hours. Clearly Nigel Farage’s party are in disarray.

“Beneath their ramshackle political operation, they offer nothing to working people because they are too busy picking up the pieces over their shambolic candidates.

Hope Not Hate spokesman Simon Cressy told the Star: “I’m not surprised. They are repeat offenders. They’ve proven time and time again that they can’t be trusted.”

Officers will examine a video revealed by the Sun that shows the MEP’s chief of staff Christine Hewitt asking a restaurant to treble a food and drinks bill.

A party put on by the South East England MEP at Ukip’s spring conference in Margate last month cost £950.

But secretly filmed footage shows Ms Atkinson’s assistant asking for an invoice worth £3,150 in order to boost Ukip’s party coffers with public money.

“The idea is we overcharge them slightly because that’s the way of repatriating (the money),” Ms Hewitt told the restaurant owner.

Ukip leader Nigel Farage claimed to be “deeply shocked” by the footage, admitting he believed the trick to be “against the law.”

He told LBC Radio: “It was one of the most incredibly stupid and dishonest things I’ve ever seen in my life.

“It would be a mistake for me to prejudge this, but on the evidence of what that member of staff did, it does not look good.”

But Hope Not Hate pointed out that Ms Atkinson is just the latest in a long line of Ukip MEPs to be investigated over expenses.

Two former Ukip MEPs, Tom Wise and Ashley Mote, served jail terms of two years and nine months respectively for falsely claiming expenses and benefits.

In 2012, ex-Ukip MEPs Graham Booth and Derek Clark were ordered to repay over £35,000 in misused European Parliament allowances.

The European Parliament has referred evidence relating to the latest allegations to EU anti-fraud office OLAF.

This article was amended on March 22 to correct an error.