A former Member of the European Parliament (MEP), who represented the constituency that includes Brighton and Hove, faces jail for a £480,000 expenses fraud.
Peter Skinner, a Labour MEP for South East England from 1999 to 2014, was convicted at Southwark Crown Court yesterday (Thursday 31 March).
Skinner, 56, of Snodland, near Maidstone, Kent, claimed the money – an allowance for staff costs – and used it to pay for luxuries such as holidays, including a snorkelling trip to Hawaii.
He also paid £10,000 of the money to his ex-wife Julie and made a payment to his father William which prompted a researcher who was working for Skinner to blow the whistle.
A jury found Skinner guilty of fraud, false accounting and making a false instrument. He was also cleared of one charge of making a false instrument.
The judge, Mrs Justice Maura McGowan, told him that it was “almost inevitable” that he would be jailed when he returns to court to be sentenced on Friday 29 April.
He is likely to be the second MEP for the South East England constituency to be jailed in two years.
Last year Ashley Mote was jailed for five years for also fiddling almost £500,000 in expenses from the European Parliament.
Mote, 80, was elected as a UKIP member but thrown out of the party when the fraud came to light. He carried on sitting as Independent MEP.
Den Dover, who represented North West England for the Conservatives from 1999 to 2009, was ordered to repay hundreds of thousands of pounds to the European Parliament in 2011.
Mr Dover, who also used to be an MP, paid six-figure sums to his wife Kathleen and daughter Amanda.
Five MPs and two members of the House of Lords have been jailed after being convicted of fiddling their parliamentary expenses.
