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Ashley Mote

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Ashley Mote
Member of the European Parliament
for South East England
In office
10 June 2004 – 4 June 2009
Preceded byRoy Perry
Succeeded byMarta Andreasen
Personal details
Born (1936-01-25) 25 January 1936 (age 88)
London, United Kingdom
Political partyIndependent
Other political
affiliations		UK Independence Party (until July 2004)[1]

Ashley Mote (born 25 January 1936) is a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England from 2004 to 2009. Elected representing the UK Independence Party, he became a non-inscrit one month into his term when he resigned from UKIP.

A vociferous critic of fraud in the European Institutions, he himself was convicted of benefit fraud in 2007 for which he served a nine-month prison sentence and was described by the trial judge as "a truly dishonest man". The scandal ignited a debate as to how an MEP could receive a prison sentence, yet keep his seat in the European Parliament; there are moves afoot to review the legislation. In 2015, Mote was jailed for a further five years for fraudulently claiming nearly £500,000 in European Parliament expenses.[2]

An analysis of the events before, during and after his trial demonstrate that English law was not properly applied. In particular: - English law was used to decide EU law; - the judge was hand-picked; he also knew of the defendant - the charges he faced were changed several times, including at the end of the trial; - the final version of the charges were never put to him; - his defence was wilfully obstructed; - the timing of the trial was orchestrated for political purposes; - and afterwards the EU demanded compensation!

The facts should be known, especially given the connivance of the two governments. The full story is now on Ashley Mote’s website: http://amoteinbrusselseye.blogspot.com/


Early career

Mote was born in London. He was educated at the City of London Freemen's School. Married with two children.

He spent several years as a journalist, a few years in public affairs management, decades researching, writing and producing videos for industrial clients around the world, and speech-writing for CEOs. Over the years his production company played an important part in helping to bring tens of millions of dollars-worth of foreign currencies into the UK. His team joked about being the smallest multi-national in the world! In the early 1990s the ERM disaster destroyed over 100,000 businesses. His was one of them.

In recent years he has been writing books on business management, the development of cricket and Britain’s membership of the European Union. They are listed on https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ashley-Mote/e/B001KCG8AI

The last of those (A Mote in Brussels’ Eye) so provoked the European Commission that they attempted to discredit him. Having doubtless concluded they had no answer to his message – irrefutable evidence of institutionalised corruption inside the EU -.the Commissioners wanted to discredit the author. They also wanted the names of the many whistle-blowers from within the Brussels system who had volunteered their help and information during his researches. Those were the motives behind his prosecution. They failed to the extent that the EU got no names.


His books include Vigilance - A Defence of British Liberty (2001) about the European Union, and OverCrowded Britain: Our Immigration Crisis. His books on cricket are The Glory Days of Cricket (1997) which won The Cricket Society's "Cricket Book of the Year" award in 1997[3] and a new edition in 1998 of John Nyren's classic collection of articles on the Georgian game, The Cricketers of My Time (1833). Mote was also the first president of the revived Hambledon Club which raises money for colts cricket.[clarification needed]

European Parliament

In June 2004 Mote was elected to the European Parliament as a representative of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) for the South East England constituency, after campaigning to clean up sleaze in Brussels.[4]

In 2005, he joined Hans Peter Martin and Paul van Buitenen in a loose politicsl group called "Platform for Transparency" which promoted accountability in the European Union. In 2006, he gave evidence to the House of Lords enquiry into the EU's financial management of public funds.

In 2008 Mote published J'Accuse...!, an anti-EU pamphlet in which he claimed that immigrants were eight times more likely to commit crime than indigenous people. According to Mote, "Jamaican Yardies are selling crack cocaine in Hereford and Cambridgeshire, Chinese Snakeheads are operating in Lancashire and Norfolk, Albanians are running prostitution in Hampshire, Colombians control a cocaine network in Essex."[5]

On 9 May 2009, Mote announced he would not stand as a candidate at the 2009 European Parliament election.[6]

Fraud conviction

Proceedings begin

In 2004, the Department for Work and Pensions brought criminal charges against Mote for allegedly claiming £32,000 in income support and £35,000 in housing benefit from Chichester District Council over a six-year period without declaring his monthly earnings of £4,000. Mote was committed for trial at Chichester Crown Court on 27 April 2004. He would face nine charges of false accounting and one charge of making a false representation. On 16 June, at a plea and directions hearing, he pleaded not guilty to the charges and a trial date was fixed for 15 November.[7] The following month, the UK Independence Party withdrew the whip from Mote on 15 July 2004 after learning from an article in The Daily Telegraph that he faced trial; Mote had failed to inform his party of the impending charges.[8]

Application for immunity

At no time did Ashley Mote ever ask the EU for immunity from prosecution. There is no evidence to support the allegation. The EU DEMANDED that the notion of a British MEP being immune be tested in EU law – and he was the obvious candidate, precisely because they wanted to have him prosecuted after publication of his book. As a matter of UK law, and fact, he knew he was not immune from prosecution. Moreover, he was not going to dispute it. Despite telling the EU what his position was they insisted on bringing a test case to establish the law to their satisfaction – and doubtless to remove any risk that he might dispute the prosecution’s legality afterwards.

An analysis of the events before, during and after his trial demonstrate that English law was not properly applied. In particular: - English law was used to decide EU law; - the judge was hand-picked; he also knew of the defendant - the charges he faced were changed several times, including at the end of the trial; - the final version of the charges were never put to him; - his defence was wilfully obstructed; - the timing of the trial was orchestrated for political purposes; - and afterwards the EU demanded compensation!

The facts should be known, especially given the connivance of the two governments. The full story is now on Ashley Mote’s website: http://amoteinbrusselseye.blogspot.com/




Conviction

On 17 August 2007 Mote was found guilty by a jury of 21 charges of deception by falsely claiming £65,506 in benefits, and acquitted of a further four charges. Judge Richard Price warned him to expect a custodial sentence, but allowed bail on condition that Mote surrendered his British and diplomatic passports, as well as providing £50,000 in sureties.[9]

He was sentenced on 31 August to nine months imprisonment to be served in Ford open prison, West Sussex. During sentencing, Judge Price said that Mote, "a truly dishonest man",[10] had executed a "carefully planned scheme of dishonesty" and had taken "a great deal of trouble to cover [his] tracks",[11] adding that "[t]o say that this case has ruined you is an understatement, it is a tragedy." Mote's defence counsel described his client as a Walter Mitty character and admitted that the sentence was a "massive fall from grace".[12] Mote applied for the third time to the CFI for relief against the impending imprisonment, highlighting the urgent nature of his request. This was also rejected by the CFI on 22 November 2007.

Reacting to the sentence, the leader of the UK Independence Party, Nigel Farage, said he was "disgusted and horrified" at the leniency of the sentence.[12] If Mote had been jailed for more than one year, he would have lost his seat in the European Parliament, which could have been reassigned to another representative. Farage added that if "Mote had a shred of integrity left, he'd resign."[12]

Mote was released from prison in November 2007 under the Government's tagging scheme.[13]


Repayment of benefits

The decision of Chichester District Council finding that benefits had been overpaid to Mote had been challenged by him before the Social Security Appeal Tribunal. The appeals were pending at the time Mote was committed for trial at the Crown Court, and were heard on 3 September 2004, although Mote was not present. The Tribunal dismissed the appeals, and Mote appealed to the Social Security Commissioners who dismissed his action on 20 July 2006. The Court of Appeal agreed to hear a further appeal and Mote argued that the Social Security Appeal Tribunal should have adjourned the case pending the outcome of Mote's criminal proceedings. This was rejected by the Court which held that the continuation of the proceedings did not constitute a breach of Mote's human rights.[14][15]

As a result of the decision, Mote was obliged to repay £67,000 of the falsely claimed benefits.[16]

Catalyst for change in the law

Sarah Ludford MEP called for the British Government to change the law in the wake of the Mote case, explaining that the European Parliament had been powerless to intervene in the case as Mote's eligibility as an MEP was solely a question of UK law. She expressed the sentiment that "MEPs are deeply unhappy at our inability to chuck out Mr Mote."[17] The Commons Leader Harriet Harman shared these concerns and said that she was "in discussions regarding how we might explore options for reviewing the legislation", adding that "[t]he aim of this would be to ensure that, in future, the salaries of MPs and MEPs who are in prison would not be paid on the basis that they are not actually carrying out all their functions."[18]

Further trial

In 2015, Mote was jailed for five years by a British court for fraudulently claiming nearly £500,000 in European Parliament expenses.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^ "UKIP suspends fraud trial Euro MP". BBC News. 16 July 2004. Retrieved 7 November 2009.
  2. ^ a b Ex-UKIP MEP jailed for £500k fraud, BBC, 13 July 2015
  3. ^ "Hambledon website". Hambledon-hants.com. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
  4. ^ The Independent, "UKIP member's sexist tirade mars Kilroy's big day", 21 July 2004, p. 24.[dead link]
  5. ^ Express on Sunday, "Jailbird's familiar tune", 20 January 2008.
  6. ^ Staff reporter (9 May 2009). "Euro MP to stand down". The News. Archived from the original on 14 May 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-19. MEP Ashley Mote is giving up his South East seat, but says he will continue to fight against the European Union. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help) (Archived by WebCite at )
  7. ^ "New MEP for UKIP faces fraud charge". Telegraph.co.uk. 15 June 2004. Retrieved 21 July 2016.
  8. ^ The Times, "Whip withdrawn", 17 July 2004, p. 6.
  9. ^ The Times, "MEP found guilty of benefit fraud", 18 August 2007, p. 22.
  10. ^ Daily Mirror, "Pay fury over MEP swindler", 5 September 2007, p. 11.
  11. ^ The Sun, "£65k con MEP gets 9 months", 5 September 2007, p. 27.
  12. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference post was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Express on Sunday, "Fraud MEP out of jail after 10 weeks", 18 November 2007.
  14. ^ The Times, "Concurrent civil case no rights breach", 28 December 2007, p. 72. Archived 12 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ "Court of Appeal, decision of 14 December 2007". Bailii.org. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
  16. ^ "BBC News, "Jailed MEP told to repay benefits", 14 December 2007". BBC News. 14 December 2007. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
  17. ^ Daily Express, "Change the law that can't disqualify disgraced MEP", 10 September 2007.
  18. ^ Birmingham Post, "Move to stop jailed MPs continuing to be paid", 17 November 2007, p. 5.

Bibliography

  • Mote, Ashley, The Glory Days of Cricket: the Extraordinary Story of Broadhalfpenny Down, 1997, Robson Books Limited (winner of the Cricket Society's 1997 Cricket Book of the Year prize).
  • Mote, Ashley, (ed.) John Nyren's Cricketers of my Time, the Original Version, 1998, Robson Books Limited (the full original text with introduction and explanatory footnotes by the editor).

Requests for immunity

Court decisions

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