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UKIP election candidate Matthew Smith faces fraud charge | |
(35 minutes later) | |
A man due to stand for UKIP in Great Yarmouth at the next general election has been summonsed to faces charges of electoral malpractice. | |
Matthew Smith is accused of seven counts of supplying a nomination paper to a returning officer knowing it to contain a forged signature. | |
He also faces three counts of producing forged nomination papers. | |
Mr Smith, 26, of High Street, Gorleston, was a party agent in Great Yarmouth. | |
'Forged signature charge' | |
Norfolk Police said Mr Smith is accused of returning fraudulent nomination papers in the Norfolk County Council elections held in the Great Yarmouth district between March and April 2013. | |
A spokeswoman said: "The charges were authorised by the Crown Prosecution Service and follow an investigation into allegations of electoral malpractice reported to Norfolk Constabulary last April." | |
Two other men also faces charges in connection with the election | |
Daniel Thistlethwaite, 19, of Station Road, South Belton, and Michael Monk, 60, of Freeman Close, Hopton, also face a charge of one count of supplying a nomination paper to a returning officer knowing it to contain a forged signature. | |
All three are due to appear at Norwich Magistrates' Court on 4 April. | |
The Conservatives lost control of Norfolk County Council in May's election. UKIP was for a short time the second-largest party. | |
UKIP now helps to run the council as part of a three-way alliance with Labour and the Liberal Democrats, supported by Green and independent councillors. | |
Mr Smith was also UKIP's candidate for the position of Norfolk's Police and Crime Commissioner (PCC). |