Former Labour MP Jared O’Mara has been jailed for 4 years for making fraudulent bills claims to fund an “extensive” cocaine behavior whereas in workplace.
O’Mara, who represented Sheffield Hallam from 2017 to 2019, was on trial at Leeds Crown Court for submitting “dishonest” invoices to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority.
The 41-year-old was convicted of making an attempt to assert as much as tens of hundreds of kilos in taxpayers’ cash to fund an “extravagant lifestyle – drink, cigarettes and, above all, cocaine”.
Prosecutors mentioned the whole worth of the fraud was about £52,000.
Judge Tom Bayliss KC mentioned O’Mara “abused [his] position as a member of parliament to commit these multiple frauds”.
He mentioned that whereas O’Mara was “without doubt suffering from autism”, this didn’t cut back his culpability, nor his skill to work as an MP.
“You knew perfectly what you were doing with this fraud, you were behaving perfectly rationally, if dishonestly, and you were using your autism diagnosis to extract money from Ipsa to fund your cocaine and alcohol-driven lifestyle,” he mentioned.
“It was deliberate, it was cynical and it was dishonest.”
He mentioned O’Mara’s apology to his constituents for not resigning in 2017 was “entirely disingenuous” and he had “shown not the slightest degree of remorse in respect of that”.
“You must have realised early on that you were wholly unsuited to the role [of MP], but you carried on regardless, you brazened it out, drawing a salary but doing little or no parliamentary work,” he mentioned.
Leeds Crown Court was instructed he made 4 claims for a complete of £19,400 from a “fictitious” organisation – Confident About Autism South Yorkshire – which jurors have been instructed referred to his buddy John Woodliff.
O’Mara was additionally discovered to have submitted a false contract of employment for Woodliff, pretending he labored as a constituency assist officer.
Woodliff was cleared by the jury of getting any function within the fraud.
‘An insufficient particular person’
O’Mara claimed he was in “poor mental health” on the time and was abusing cocaine, a category A drug, in “prodigious quantities”.
Mark Kelly KC, defending O’Mara, mentioned he was “an inadequate individual to cope with the stresses and strains of public life” and “resorted to taking drugs, alcohol and distancing himself in many respects from those that were around him”.
Co-defendant Gareth Arnold was discovered responsible of three out of six fraud costs, and a 3rd defendant, John Woodliff, was discovered not responsible of 1 offence of fraud.
Arnold, 30, was handed a suspended sentence.
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‘Not a victimless crime’
Prosecutor James Bourne-Arton mentioned the fraud was not a victimless crime and that it had an influence on different MPs “because it undermines public trust and confidence in them”.
The disgraced MP received Sheffield Hallam for Labour from former Liberal Democrat chief Sir Nick Clegg in 2017, however later left the get together after a collection of controversies.
He stayed in workplace as an impartial MP however didn’t contest the 2019 basic election.
Source: information.sky.com”