A Barons Court woman who worked as researcher for a former MEP has been cleared of false accounting, after her boss pleaded guilty to a £36,000 expenses fraud.
Lindsay Jenkins, 62, was on trial at Southwark Crown Court alongside former Bedfordshire MEP Tom Wise, who faces jail after confessing days after the trial began.
This confession, said the prosecutor in the case, effectively exonerated Mrs Jenkins.
Wise, 61, who first represented the UK Independence Party before turning independent, channeled taxpayers' money into his own bank account over the period of a year.
He pretended monthly payments of £3,000 were "secretarial assistance allowance" for Mrs Jenkins. Instead he paid her only £500, and used the remaining £2,500 "in support of his own interests".
Mrs Jenkins had previously denied both the false accounting charge and an allegation of using criminal property between November 14 2004 and November 1 the following year.
Mark Fenhalls, prosecuting, said that in pleading guilty, Mr Wise "fully accepted responsibility for his actions and, by virtue of his plea and what he says, he has effectively exonerated Mrs Jenkins."
The barrister said the former MEP also accepted documents signed by Mrs Jenkins in the course of the fraud were "misleading and were in all probability blank when he asked her to sign them".
He added that when the fraud was exposed by a national newspaper four years ago, Tom Wise immediately began repaying the money.
" He did so because he had been caught and was trying to minimise the trouble he was in," said counsel. "Perhaps he hoped by swift repayment he could somehow head off further inquiry."
If Wise's fraud had not been exposed, he could have paid himself £180,000 over five years.
Wise, Leighton Buzzard in Bedfordshire, who was kicked out of Ukip over the scandal, denied false accounting between October 14 and November 16 2004. But on the third day of his three week trial and just before Ukip leader Nigel Farrage was to give evidence against him, Wise started discussions with his legal team. After several hours and an overnight adjournment to finalise details, the jury was discharged and Wise admitted he was guilty.
November 5, 2009
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