Ashley Mote
Encyclopedia
Ashley Mote was a non-inscrit Member of the European Parliament
(MEP) for South East England
. An outspoken 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 currently moves afoot to review the legislation.
, Surrey
, employing thirteen full-time staff, for eighteen years before it closed in 1989 as a result of the late 1980s recession
.
He later became an author, publishing several titles on right wing politics and also on cricket
. His books have included 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 and a 1998 re-issue of John Nyren
's 1833 classic collection of articles on the Georgian game, The Cricketers of My Time
. He was also the first president of the revived Hambledon Club
which raises money for colts cricket.
(UKIP) for South East England. He had campaigned to clean up sleaze in Brussels.
He purports to expose and research fraud in the EU, although Mote himself has served time in prison after being found guilty of benefit fraud. He has recently published J'Accuse...!, an anti-EU pamphlet in which he claims migrants are 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
."
After having the whip withdrawn pending his fraud trial, he became an non-inscrit
MEP. In 2005, he joined with Hans Peter Martin and Paul van Buitenen in the loose unofficial grouping 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 2007, he transferred his allegiances to the new far-right group Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty, whose members included Jean-Marie Le Pen
and Alessandra Mussolini
; the group, branded as "fascists" ceased to exist on 14 November 2007.
On 9 May 2009, Mote announced he would not stand as a candidate at the 2009 European Parliament election
.
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. 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.
on the basis of his status as an MEP. His application was heard by Judge Aikens at Lewes Crown Court
. He held that Chichester Crown Court was obliged to stay proceedings until the European Parliament had exercised its right to waive immunity. On 3 February 2005 the Attorney General
applied to the Parliament whose Committee on Legal Affairs unanimously granted the waiver on 20 June and gave its approval to proceedings continuing in England.
On 5 April 2005 Mote appealed the Parliament's decision to the Court of First Instance
(CFI). He gave no notice of his application to the Attorney General, nor to Judge Aikens at Lewes Crown Court, meaning that the British Government was unable to intervene in the case. Mote later applied on 15 December 2006 to the CFI for an interim order suspending the Parliament's decision pending the outcome of their decision. This was rejected on the basis that the condition of urgency was not satisfied.
Following the Parliament's waiver, the Attorney General applied to lift the stay imposed by Judge Aikens. The application was heard by Judge Gross on 17 October 2006 who granted the application, ruling that the desirability of proceeding with the trial outweighed any potential injustice to Mote that might result if the CFI were to annul the decision of the European Parliament to grant a waiver.
", but the Parliament remarked that he had no immunity to defend and took no action. A second application was made to the CFI for interim measures, but this was also rejected.
A four-week trial commenced at Portsmouth Crown Court in July 2007; proceedings against Mote were led by government lawyers who had taken over the case from Chichester District Council in late 2005. The court heard that Mote had claimed housing and council tax benefits between 1991 and 1993 following the collapse of his business. He began to claim benefits again from 1996 but failed to declare income from various enterprises including a cleaning company and gambling on the currency markets.
In total, Mote spent just short of £73,000 between 20 February 1996 and 29 September 2002 to fund a "luxury lifestyle", regularly dining out and holidaying in France
, The Caribbean and the United States
. He was also accused of pocketing "substantial sums" through his interests in two firms. Joanna Greenberg QC
, prosecuting, said that from 1996, Mote had filled out benefit claim forms stating that he was unemployed and had no financial assets, even though at the time he had business interests in an international marketing firm called Tanner Management and another company, JC Commercial Management.
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.
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", had executed a "carefully planned scheme of dishonesty" and had taken "a great deal of trouble to cover [his] tracks, 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". 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. 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."
Mote was released from prison in November 2007 under the Government's tagging scheme.
on two main grounds. First, that he had applied to the European Court of Justice
to have his immunity as an MEP upheld and that it was an abuse of process
for the Crown Court not to have suspended the case pending its decision. Second, that the fact the jury had convicted him on 21 counts of fraud and acquitted him on 4 counts was inconsistent. Giving his judgment, the Lord Chief Justice
, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, stated that Portsmouth Crown Court had correctly decided that there was no need to wait for the CFI's decision, noting in any case that it was unlikely the CFI would differ in its final judgment from the decision of the European Parliament. On the second ground of appeal, the Court did, however, quash one of the counts of fraud - that of failing to notify.
The CFI handed down its decision on 15 October 2008. Mote had argued that the European Parliament had incorrectly interpreted Article 8 of the Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Communities concerning the immunity from prosecution
of MEPs, that the Parliament should not have expressed an opinion on the merits of his fraud prosecution and that the decision to waive his immunity was "unreasonable and disproportionate", inadequately reasoned and taken without full consideration of the facts and arguments he had put forward. These arguments were all rejected by the Court, which ordered him to pay the Parliament's legal costs.
. 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
.
As a result of the decision, Mote was obliged to repay £67,000 of the falsely claimed benefits.
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." 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."
Member of the European Parliament
A Member of the European Parliament is a person who has been elected to the European Parliament. The name of MEPs differ in different languages, with terms such as europarliamentarian or eurodeputy being common in Romance language-speaking areas.When the European Parliament was first established,...
(MEP) for South East England
South East England (European Parliament constituency)
South East England is a constituency of the European Parliament. It currently elects 10 Members of the European Parliament using the D'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.- Boundaries :...
. An outspoken critic of fraud in the European Institutions
Institutions of the European Union
The European Union is governed by seven institutions. Article 13 of Treaty on European Union lists them in the following order: the European Parliament, the European Council, the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the European...
, 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
European Parliament
The European Parliament is the directly elected parliamentary institution of the European Union . Together with the Council of the European Union and the Commission, it exercises the legislative function of the EU and it has been described as one of the most powerful legislatures in the world...
; there are currently moves afoot to review the legislation.
Early career
Married with two children, Mote was a management consultant who ran a marketing business in FarnhamFarnham
Farnham is a town in Surrey, England, within the Borough of Waverley. The town is situated some 42 miles southwest of London in the extreme west of Surrey, adjacent to the border with Hampshire...
, Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
, employing thirteen full-time staff, for eighteen years before it closed in 1989 as a result of the late 1980s recession
Late 1980s recession
The recession of the early 1990s describes the period of economic downturn affecting much of the world in the late 1980s and early 1990s.-Causes:...
.
He later became an author, publishing several titles on right wing politics and also on cricket
Cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...
. His books have included Vigilance - A Defence of British Liberty (2001) about the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, and OverCrowded Britain: Our Immigration Crisis. His books on cricket are The Glory Days of Cricket (1997) which won The Cricket Society
The Cricket Society
The Cricket Society is a charitable organisation founded in 1945 as the Society of Cricket Statisticians at Great Scotland Yard, London. It has grown steadily to be the largest body of its kind in the cricket world...
's "Cricket Book of the Year" award in 1997 and a 1998 re-issue of John Nyren
John Nyren
John Nyren was an English cricketer and author. Nyren made 16 known appearances in first-class cricket from 1787 to 1817...
's 1833 classic collection of articles on the Georgian game, The Cricketers of My Time
The Cricketers of My Time
The Cricketers of My Time is a memoir of cricket, nominally written by the former Hambledon cricketer John Nyren about the players of the late 18th century, most of whom he knew personally. Nyren, who had no recognised literary skill, collaborated with the eminent Shakespearean scholar Charles...
. He was also the first president of the revived Hambledon Club
Hambledon Club
The Hambledon Club was a social club that is famous for its organisation of 18th century cricket matches. By the late 1770s it was the foremost cricket club in England.-Foundation:...
which raises money for colts cricket.
European Parliament
Mote was elected in June 2004 as a representative of the United Kingdom Independence PartyUnited Kingdom Independence Party
The United Kingdom Independence Party is a eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the United Kingdom. Whilst its primary goal is the UK's withdrawal from the European Union, the party has expanded beyond its single-issue image to develop a more comprehensive party platform.UKIP...
(UKIP) for South East England. He had campaigned to clean up sleaze in Brussels.
He purports to expose and research fraud in the EU, although Mote himself has served time in prison after being found guilty of benefit fraud. He has recently published J'Accuse...!, an anti-EU pamphlet in which he claims migrants are eight times more likely to commit crime than "indigenous people". According to Mote, "Jamaican Yardies
Yardie
Yardie is a term stemming from the slang name originally given to occupants of "government yards", social housing projects with very basic amenities, in Trenchtown, a neighborhood in West Kingston, Jamaica. Trenchtown was originally built as a housing project following devastation caused by...
are selling crack cocaine in Hereford
Hereford
Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...
and Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
, Chinese Snakeheads
Snakehead (gang)
Snakeheads are Chinese gangs that smuggle people to other countries. They are found in the Fujian region of China and smuggle their customers into wealthier Western countries such as those in Western Europe, North America, Australia, and some nearby wealthier countries such as Taiwan and...
are operating in Lancashire
Lancashire
Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...
and Norfolk
Norfolk
Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...
, Albanians
Albanians
Albanians are a nation and ethnic group native to Albania and neighbouring countries. They speak the Albanian language. More than half of all Albanians live in Albania and Kosovo...
are running prostitution in Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
, Colombians
Colombians
Colombians may refer to:* Citizens of Colombia, a country in South America.* Ethnic Colombians** Colombian people, persons from Colombia or of Colombian ancestry...
control a cocaine network in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
."
After having the whip withdrawn pending his fraud trial, he became an non-inscrit
Non-Inscrits
Non-Inscrits are Members of the European Parliament who do not sit in one of the recognized political groups....
MEP. In 2005, he joined with Hans Peter Martin and Paul van Buitenen in the loose unofficial grouping Platform for Transparency
Platform for Transparency
Platform for Transparency was a loose unofficial grouping within the European Parliament, established in 2005, for three MEPs who are not affiliated to an official European political party....
which promoted accountability in the European Union. In 2006, he gave evidence to the House of Lords
House of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
enquiry into the EU's financial management of public funds. In 2007, he transferred his allegiances to the new far-right group Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty, whose members included Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen
Jean-Marie Le Pen is a French far right-wing and nationalist politician who is founder and former president of the Front National party. Le Pen has run for the French presidency five times, most notably in 2002, when in a surprise upset he came second, polling more votes in the first round than...
and Alessandra Mussolini
Alessandra Mussolini
Alessandra Mussolini is an Italian politician, the granddaughter of Benito Mussolini, and previously an actress and model...
; the group, branded as "fascists" ceased to exist on 14 November 2007.
On 9 May 2009, Mote announced he would not stand as a candidate at the 2009 European Parliament election
European Parliament election, 2009 (United Kingdom)
The European Parliament election was the United Kingdom's component of the 2009 European Parliament election, the voting for which was held on Thursday 4 June 2009, coinciding with the 2009 local elections in England. Most of the results of the election were announced on Sunday 7 June, after...
.
Proceedings begin
In 2004, the Department for Work and PensionsDepartment for Work and Pensions
The Department for Work and Pensions is the largest government department in the United Kingdom, created on June 8, 2001 from the merger of the employment part of the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Social Security and headed by the Secretary of State for Work and...
brought criminal charges against Mote for allegedly claiming £32,000 in income support
Income Support
Income support is an income-related means-tested benefit in the United Kingdom for people who are on a low income. Claimants of Income Support may be entitled to certain other benefits, for example, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit and help with health costs...
and £35,000 in housing benefit
Housing Benefit
Housing Benefit is a means tested social security benefit in the UK that is intended to help meet Housing costs for rented accommodation. The primary legislation governing Housing Benefit is the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992. Operationally, the governing Regulations are...
from Chichester District Council over a six-year period without declaring his monthly earnings of £4,000. Mote was committed
Committal procedure
In law, a committal procedure is the process by which a defendant is charged with a serious offence under the criminal justice systems of all common law jurisdictions outside the United States...
for trial at Chichester Crown Court
Crown Court
The Crown Court of England and Wales is, together with the High Court of Justice and the Court of Appeal, one of the constituent parts of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
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. The following month, the UK Independence Party withdrew the whip
Whip (politics)
A whip is an official in a political party whose primary purpose is to ensure party discipline in a legislature. Whips are a party's "enforcers", who typically offer inducements and threaten punishments for party members to ensure that they vote according to the official party policy...
from Mote on 15 July 2004 after learning from an article in The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph
The Daily Telegraph is a daily morning broadsheet newspaper distributed throughout the United Kingdom and internationally. The newspaper was founded by Arthur B...
that he faced trial; Mote had failed to inform his party of the impending charges.
Application for immunity
On 4 October 2004 Mote sought to claim immunity from prosecutionParliamentary immunity
Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which members of the parliament or legislature are granted partial immunity from prosecution. Before prosecuting, it is necessary that the immunity be removed, usually by a superior court of justice or by the parliament itself...
on the basis of his status as an MEP. His application was heard by Judge Aikens at Lewes Crown Court
Lewes Crown Court
Lewes Crown Court is a Crown Court in Lewes, East Sussex, England. It is housed in the Lewes Combined Court Centre which it shares with Lewes County Court in the Lewes High Street...
. He held that Chichester Crown Court was obliged to stay proceedings until the European Parliament had exercised its right to waive immunity. On 3 February 2005 the Attorney General
Attorney General for England and Wales
Her Majesty's Attorney General for England and Wales, usually known simply as the Attorney General, is one of the Law Officers of the Crown. Along with the subordinate Solicitor General for England and Wales, the Attorney General serves as the chief legal adviser of the Crown and its government in...
applied to the Parliament whose Committee on Legal Affairs unanimously granted the waiver on 20 June and gave its approval to proceedings continuing in England.
On 5 April 2005 Mote appealed the Parliament's decision to the Court of First Instance
Court of First Instance
The General Court is a jurisdictional instance of the Court of Justice of the European Union. From its inception on 1 January 1989 to 30 November 2009, it was known as the Court of First Instance .-Competence:...
(CFI). He gave no notice of his application to the Attorney General, nor to Judge Aikens at Lewes Crown Court, meaning that the British Government was unable to intervene in the case. Mote later applied on 15 December 2006 to the CFI for an interim order suspending the Parliament's decision pending the outcome of their decision. This was rejected on the basis that the condition of urgency was not satisfied.
Following the Parliament's waiver, the Attorney General applied to lift the stay imposed by Judge Aikens. The application was heard by Judge Gross on 17 October 2006 who granted the application, ruling that the desirability of proceeding with the trial outweighed any potential injustice to Mote that might result if the CFI were to annul the decision of the European Parliament to grant a waiver.
Trial
The case returned to England and a further 16 counts of fraud were added to Mote's original indictment. He complained once again to the European Parliament on 4 May 2007 that this constituted a "contemptContempt of Parliament
In some countries, contempt of parliament is the offence of obstructing the legislature in the carrying out of its functions, or of hindering any legislator in the performance of his or her duties. The offence is known by various other names in jurisdictions in which the legislature is not called...
", but the Parliament remarked that he had no immunity to defend and took no action. A second application was made to the CFI for interim measures, but this was also rejected.
A four-week trial commenced at Portsmouth Crown Court in July 2007; proceedings against Mote were led by government lawyers who had taken over the case from Chichester District Council in late 2005. The court heard that Mote had claimed housing and council tax benefits between 1991 and 1993 following the collapse of his business. He began to claim benefits again from 1996 but failed to declare income from various enterprises including a cleaning company and gambling on the currency markets.
In total, Mote spent just short of £73,000 between 20 February 1996 and 29 September 2002 to fund a "luxury lifestyle", regularly dining out and holidaying in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, The Caribbean and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He was also accused of pocketing "substantial sums" through his interests in two firms. Joanna Greenberg QC
Queen's Counsel
Queen's Counsel , known as King's Counsel during the reign of a male sovereign, are lawyers appointed by letters patent to be one of Her [or His] Majesty's Counsel learned in the law...
, prosecuting, said that from 1996, Mote had filled out benefit claim forms stating that he was unemployed and had no financial assets, even though at the time he had business interests in an international marketing firm called Tanner Management and another company, JC Commercial Management.
Conviction
On 17 August 2007 Mote was found guilty by a juryJury
A jury is a sworn body of people convened to render an impartial verdict officially submitted to them by a court, or to set a penalty or judgment. Modern juries tend to be found in courts to ascertain the guilt, or lack thereof, in a crime. In Anglophone jurisdictions, the verdict may be guilty,...
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
Custodial sentence
A custodial sentence is a judicial sentence, imposing a punishment consisting of mandatory custody of the convict, either in prison or in some other closed therapeutic and/or educational institution, such as a reformatory, psychiatry or drug detoxification...
, but allowed bail
Bail
Traditionally, bail is some form of property deposited or pledged to a court to persuade it to release a suspect from jail, on the understanding that the suspect will return for trial or forfeit the bail...
on condition that Mote surrendered his British and diplomatic passports, as well as providing £50,000 in sureties.
He was sentenced on 31 August to nine months imprisonment to be served in Ford open prison
Ford (HM Prison)
HM Prison Ford is a Category D men's prison, located at Ford, in West Sussex, England, near Arundel and Littlehampton. The prison is operated by Her Majesty's Prison Service.-History:...
, West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
. During sentencing, Judge Price said that Mote, "a truly dishonest man", had executed a "carefully planned scheme of dishonesty" and had taken "a great deal of trouble to cover [his] tracks, 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
Walter Mitty
Walter Mitty is a fictional character in James Thurber's short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", first published in the New Yorker on March 18, 1939, and in book form in My World and Welcome to It in 1942...
character and admitted that the sentence was a "massive fall from grace". 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
Nigel Farage
Nigel Paul Farage MEP , a position he previously held from September 2006 to November 2009. He is a current Member of the European Parliament for South East England and co-chairs the Eurosceptic Europe of Freedom and Democracy group....
, said he was "disgusted and horrified" at the leniency of the sentence. 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."
Mote was released from prison in November 2007 under the Government's tagging scheme.
Appeal
Mote appealed the decision of Portsmouth Crown Court to the Court of AppealCourt of Appeal of England and Wales
The Court of Appeal of England and Wales is the second most senior court in the English legal system, with only the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom above it...
on two main grounds. First, that he had applied to the European Court of Justice
European Court of Justice
The Court can sit in plenary session, as a Grand Chamber of 13 judges, or in chambers of three or five judges. Plenary sitting are now very rare, and the court mostly sits in chambers of three or five judges...
to have his immunity as an MEP upheld and that it was an abuse of process
Abuse of process
Abuse of process is a cause of action in tort arising from one party making a malicious and deliberate misuse or perversion of regularly issued court process not justified by the underlying legal action.It is a common law intentional tort...
for the Crown Court not to have suspended the case pending its decision. Second, that the fact the jury had convicted him on 21 counts of fraud and acquitted him on 4 counts was inconsistent. Giving his judgment, the Lord Chief Justice
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales
The Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales is the head of the judiciary and President of the Courts of England and Wales. Historically, he was the second-highest judge of the Courts of England and Wales, after the Lord Chancellor, but that changed as a result of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005,...
, Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, stated that Portsmouth Crown Court had correctly decided that there was no need to wait for the CFI's decision, noting in any case that it was unlikely the CFI would differ in its final judgment from the decision of the European Parliament. On the second ground of appeal, the Court did, however, quash one of the counts of fraud - that of failing to notify.
The CFI handed down its decision on 15 October 2008. Mote had argued that the European Parliament had incorrectly interpreted Article 8 of the Protocol on the Privileges and Immunities of the European Communities concerning the immunity from prosecution
Parliamentary immunity
Parliamentary immunity, also known as legislative immunity, is a system in which members of the parliament or legislature are granted partial immunity from prosecution. Before prosecuting, it is necessary that the immunity be removed, usually by a superior court of justice or by the parliament itself...
of MEPs, that the Parliament should not have expressed an opinion on the merits of his fraud prosecution and that the decision to waive his immunity was "unreasonable and disproportionate", inadequately reasoned and taken without full consideration of the facts and arguments he had put forward. These arguments were all rejected by the Court, which ordered him to pay the Parliament's legal costs.
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 TribunalSocial security appeal tribunal
The Social Security Appeal Tribunal was a tribunal in the United Kingdom which heard appeals from decisions made by the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue and Customs and local authorities regarding entitlement to various forms of social security benefits.The Tribunal was abolished in...
. 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
Human Rights Act 1998
The Human Rights Act 1998 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which received Royal Assent on 9 November 1998, and mostly came into force on 2 October 2000. Its aim is to "give further effect" in UK law to the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights...
.
As a result of the decision, Mote was obliged to repay £67,000 of the falsely claimed benefits.
Catalyst for change in the law
Sarah Ludford MEPSarah Ludford, Baroness Ludford
Sarah Ann Ludford, Baroness Ludford is a Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament and a nonvoting member of the House of Lords ....
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." The Commons Leader
Leader of the House of Commons
The Leader of the House of Commons is a member of the Cabinet of the United Kingdom who is responsible for arranging government business in the House of Commons...
Harriet Harman
Harriet Harman
Harriet Ruth Harman QC is a British Labour Party politician, who is the Member of Parliament for Camberwell and Peckham, and was MP for the predecessorPeckham constituency from 1982 to 1997...
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."
Requests for immunity
- Report by Klaus-Heiner Lehne MEP recommending waiving Mote's immunity, 22 June 2005
- Resolution of the European Parliament waiving immunity, 5 July 2005
- Report by Francesco Speroni MEP on Mote's request for immunity, 28 June 2007
- Resolution of the European Parliament deciding not to defend Mote's immunity, 10 July 2007
Court decisions
- Mote v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (1) and Chichester District Council (2), Court of Appeal decision, 14 December 2007
- Mote v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Court of Appeal decision, 27 December 2007
- Mote v European Parliament, Court of First Instance decision, 15 October 2008