Nigel Farage must be hoping the latest crop of UKIP MEPs prove more honest than the 2004 intake, after former MEP Tom Wise was sentenced to two years in prison.
Wise, who until earlier this year was an MEP for the East of England, channelled £39,000 of taxpayers’ money into a secret bank account and spent it on cars and wine.
His trick was to pay his assistant £500 a month, say he was paying her £3,000 a month and pocket the difference.
The scam was reported by the Daily Telegraph in October 2005. A couple of years later, Tom Wise was expelled from UKIP and sat as an independent MEP.
Tom isn’t the only UKIP MEP to defraud taxpayers and be sent to prison as a result. Ashley Mote was given a nine month sentence in 2007 after falsely claiming £65,000 in benefits. Both MEPs had been expelled from UKIP by the time they stood trial.
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5 Comments
In light of this it’s all the more surprising that UKIP succeeded in prospering to the extent they did from the MP expenses scandal at the Euro elections.
People didn’t know, or are they that anti-Europe?
I would like to see the Kinnocks investigated. At least their snout in trough habits publicized. Most of the UK MPs, especially labour, are doing their best to look like they are trying for the next election, secretly wanting to lose to claim their lump sums and pensions. UKIP and other parties will pick up a lot of seats as the Labour and Conservative MPs put up a token of trying to get elected. Brown and Cameron should not give pensions to MPs who lose their seats, but only to MPs who actually win their seats, or at least put up a decent fight, that might focus their minds. It wont be policies etc. that lose them the next election, it will be the under whelming fight their politicians will put up. Frankly, many of them should be facing charges, but this wont happen, and my guess is that the party leaders just hope that the next election will put the expense issue under the carpet. I also find it amazing that Blair can be considered for Euro President. He is responsible in the main for the mess we are in, and he doesnt even live in Europe. He ran away to the USA to pursue a better life and more money. He cant possibly be considered pro European, only pro Blair.
Shows the type of people who are attracted to UKIP – only after Nigel Farage asking his MEPs to sign up to an agreement did he have the whip withdrawn – otherwise he would have stayed in the party.
It’s unbelievable when you think how Nigel Farage berated his fellow panellists on Question Time about expenses…none of them can do that at the moment…
It wasn’t like Tom Wises behaviour wasn’t known about during the Euro elections it was poor form of the press not to have picked up on it and scrutinised UKIP properly. Although given it was the Telegraph making the news back in May this was probably not surprising.
“Both MEPs had been expelled from UKIP by the time they stood trial.”
Sorry to be blunt, but – much as I despise UKIP – that’s one up for them over the Lib Dems.
Viscount Falkland has fraudulently claimed more money than both of these ex-MEPs put together, and apparently the party can’t bring itself even to issue a mild reprimand, let alone expelling him from the party.
The more time goes on, the more I’m driven to the conclusion that all politicians really are as bad as one another.
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[…] Further to our item last week, the former UKIP member of the European Parliament for our area has been given a 2 year jail sentence […]