Former independent MEP Ashley Mote jailed for fraud

Former independent MEP, Ashley Mote, has been jailed for 5 years for fraud.

Ashley Mote was a UKIP candidate in the 2004 EU elections but was expelled from the party when he confessed to being investigated for benefit fraud and took his seat as an independent MEP.

Mote fraudulently claimed almost half a million in expenses from the EU, £100k of which was to fund his legal expenses for his benefit fraud conviction.

Despite what some of the papers are saying, Ashley Mote has never been a UKIP MEP. He was expelled from the party before he took his seat and sat as an independent from his first day as an MEP.

Ex-MEP Ashley Mote convicted of fraud

Former MEP, Ashley Mote, who was thrown out of the party shortly after being elected in 2004 when he admitted to being investigated for fraud has been found guilty of fraud and false accounting.

A jury took less than 2 hours to find Mote guilty 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.

Mote lied to UKIP during the selection process for the 2004 EU elections, concealing the fact that the DWP were investigating him for fraud which would of course have barred him from holding office in UKIP or standing for election for the party. When he eventually admitted that he was under investigation for fraud he was expelled from the party and sat as an independent MEP until 2009.

Kilroy: still irritating

Robert Kiljoy-Silk, the former UKIP MEP and walking ego, has proven to be just as irritating in Australia as he is in England.

Kiljoy started what will hopefully be a very brief stint in I'm a celebrity get me out of here I'm a nobody, give me a job yesterday and from the outset lived up to his reputation as an abbrasive, irritating egotist.

At this juncture I must say that I'm not in the habit of watching "reality" TV shows and other variations of trash TV but I do find this one quite entertaining. It's probably those cheeky geordies presenting the show ... or the lovely ladies in bikinis ... or maybe a bit of both!

Anyway, back to Kiljoy. There have been some suggestions - primarily from UKIP - that Kiljoy shouldn't be paid while he's on the other side of the world. I accept the argument that he can't be doing his job as an MEP at the same time as being in Australia on a TV show but when the world carries on revolving and his "constituents" in the English East Midlands don't all suffer from a horrible death at the hands of a bent cucumber because he's away, perhaps it will remind everybody what a mickey mouse outfit the European Parliament is. UKIP's MEPs do an excellent job of disrupting the business of the European Parliament but as we all know, the real power lies with the European Commission, the unelected quasi-civil service of the EU. The European Parliament could be abiolished tomorrow and the EU would carry on making 70% of our laws.

Besides, what hope is there of depriving Kiljoy of his MEP's salary for spending a few days in Australia when he's supposed to be in England, working, when Ashley Mote not only kept his job, but his full £60k MEP's salary, whilst serving nine months in one of Her Majesty's hotels for benefit fraud?