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Former MEP Ashley Mote jailed over expenses fraud Former MEP Ashley Mote jailed over expenses fraud
(35 minutes later)
A former MEP who fraudulently claiming almost £500,000 in European Parliament expenses has been jailed. A former MEP who fraudulently claimed almost £500,000 in European Parliament expenses has been jailed.
Ashley Mote, 79, was convicted of 12 charges relating to fraudulent claims to pay people he said were "whistleblowers". Ashley Mote, 79, was convicted of 12 charges relating to claims for payments to people he said were whistleblowers.
The offences included fraud, acquiring criminal property and false accounting.The offences included fraud, acquiring criminal property and false accounting.
Mote, who sat as a UKIP and then independent MEP for South East England, was sentenced to five years at London's Southwark Crown Court. Mote, who was elected on a UKIP ticket but sat as an independent MEP for South East England, was sentenced to five years at London's Southwark Crown Court.
This breaking news story is being updated and more details will be published shortly. Please refresh the page for the fullest version. 'Greed and dishonesty'
If you want to receive Breaking News alerts via email, or on a smartphone or tablet via the BBC News App then details on how to do so are available on this help page. You can also follow @BBCBreaking on Twitter to get the latest alerts. In May, he was convicted of four counts of obtaining a money transfer by deception, three of false accounting, two of fraud, and one each of acquiring criminal property, concealing criminal property and theft.
The offences took place between November 2004 and July 2010.
On sentencing, Mr Justice Stuart-Smith told Mote: "[The jury] listened to you closely for days as you lied, protested, lied and lied again about the monies you had fraudulently claimed as expenses while serving your constituents and your country as an MEP.
"During the period from 2004 to 2009 you corruptly fiddled over £400,000 in expenses.
"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."
'Wrong 'un'
Mote sat as an independent from 2004-2009 after being expelled from UKIP for benefit fraud.
He was jailed for nine months but was able to keep his seat because his sentence was under a year in length.
UKIP party leader Nigel Farage said: "He was never a UKIP MEP I'm pleased to say. He was elected on a UKIP list.
"I found out very quickly and thought he was a wrong 'un so I kicked him out of the party, and this will be his second prison sentence so there you are.
"He never took his seat as a UKIP MEP. He was a member of UKIP, who was elected and I kicked him out even before he took his seat."