Ex-Labour MP ‘falsely claimed £30,000 in Commons expenses to fund his cocaine habit’
A FORMER Labour MP falsely claimed £30,000 in expenses in a ‘ brazen fraud’ to fund a ‘prodigious’ cocaine habit, a court heard yesterday.
Jared O’Mara, 41, who was MP for Sheffield Hallam for two years, regarded taxpayers’ money as a source of income that was his to use as he wished, Leeds Crown Court was told.
The MP, who is autistic, even allegedly invented a fictitious autism organisation to try to claim thousands of pounds in faked expenses. Prosecutor James Bourne-Arton said O’Mara was in ‘dire need of cash’ to fund his cocaine habit and was possibly ‘living beyond his means’.
But he added that the former MP ‘appears to maintain’ that his claims were ‘all genuine and that he didn’t act dishonestly’.
O’Mara, of Sheffield, denies eight counts of fraud by false representation. He appeared in court by video-link yesterday.
His chief of staff Gareth Arnold, 30, of Dronfield, Derbyshire, denies six of the same fraud offences. John Woodliff, 43, of Sheffield, a friend of the MP, denies a single fraud offence that he falsely claimed to be a constituency support worker.
Mr Bourne-Arton told the jury it was a ‘very straightforward case of fraud’ involving invoices for services that ‘were a fiction’ and making ‘dishonest claims for work that hadn’t been done’.
He said the MP’s claims were submitted to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) – set up in the wake of the MPs’ expenses scandal – as a means of acquiring extra income for the ‘ enjoyment of his extensive cocaine habit’.
Co-defendants Arnold and Woodliff were ‘old friends’ persuaded to go along with the ‘ dishonest claims’, the jury heard.
O’Mara, who was elected as Labour MP in June 2017 and remained in office until losing his seat in the December 2019 election, was said to be ‘fully aware of the claims that were being made and knew that they were false’.
The ‘fraudulent’ claims were made in 2019 and exposed when Arnold went to the police. He also told them he had spoken to a mental health crisis team the previous day to report the MP, who was suffering a ‘severe psychotic episode and has delusions of a conspiracy against him’.
O’Mara is accused of submitting expenses claims totalling £19,370 relating to an organisation called Confident About Autism South Yorkshire ( CAASY). But Mr Bourne-Arton told the jury this organisation did not exist.
He said: ‘It was an invention of Jared O’Mara that he hoped to slip through as a legitimate claim, no doubt seeking to hide behind the fact that it related to his disability if it was ever challenged.’ The former MP claimed the group was owed payment for ‘vocational support and assistance’.
One invoice for £3,110 to the autism organisation was rejected by IPSA three times.
Woodliff was another friend who worked as a doorman when O’Mara was a nightclub manager.
He was put on the payroll as a constituency support officer in June 2019 and signed a contract for an annual salary of £28,800 to be paid by the taxpayer. He was supposed to work on constituency business but in reality he did ‘no such thing’, the jury heard.
When questioned by police, O’Mara ‘described an undoubtedly sad state of affairs’ in which he was ‘plainly unable to cope with the office he held, was in poor mental health and was heavily addicted to cocaine that he was abusing in prodigious quantities’, the prosecutor said. The court heard that upon his arrest, Woodliff said: ‘I knew it was dodgy.’
Mr Bourne-Arton said O’Mara was ‘likely to blame IPSA, Parliament and his autism for any discrepancy that can be identified’.
The case continues.
‘Delusions of a conspiracy against him’