SOUTH East England MEP and benefits cheat, Ashley Mote, will have to repay every penny of the £67,000 he was overpaid – along with more than £8,000 in lawyers' bills – after failing in an appeal court challenge. While Mote, of Binsted, was throwing himself on the bounty of the state – claiming income support and housing benefit – he took out a bank loan, saying he was a management consultant earning £48,000- a-year. And he also did nothing to reveal a bank account he had on the Isle of Man, through which more than £60,000 flowed over a four-year period, said top judge, Lord Justice Richards. The pensioner, who formerly represented the UK Independence Party (Ukip) in Strasbourg, was jailed for nine months in September after being found guilty of 21 benefit fraud offences at Portsmouth Crown Court. His attempts to block the prosecution as a breach of his 'privilege' as an MEP failed after the European Parliament 'waived' his immunity at the behest of Britain's top law officer, the Attorney General. Mote is currently challenging his convictions and his case was heard on December 5, at London's Criminal Appeal Court by the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Phillips, and two other judges. He is still awaiting that court's decision on his appeal. In separate proceedings, at the Civil Appeal Court, Mote challenged a decision of the Social Security Commissioners last year that he was liable to pay back £32,000 in income support he received between 1996 and 2002, along with £35,000 in housing benefit. Among other things, Mote, argued that the hearing before the commissioners amounted to an impermissible "rehearsal" for the criminal trial, which was then pending, and violated his human rights. However, Lord Justice Richards said that, on November 29, 2000, Mote took out a Sainsbury's bank loan after telling the bank that "he was a management consultant with 30 years length of service", that he was employed by JC Commercial Management and that he earned £4,000 a month. The commissioners also found that he "did not at any time reveal", either to the Department of Work and Pensions, or Chichester District Council – who had paid him housing benefit – the existence of his Barclays Bank account on the Isle of Man, through which a total of £60,394 flowed between 1996 and 2000. Dismissing Mote's appeal, Lord Justice Richards said the commissioners' findings were open to them on the evidence. He went on to say: "In the absence of any other explanation, it was reasonable to infer that the money going into the Isle of Man account was income." He added: "It was also reasonable to rely on the appellant's (Mote's) own statements in the loan document completed by him. "The statements made in the document were, when taken together, an ample basis for the inference that the appellant had had an income of £4,000 a month throughout the relevant period." Mote, who still denies any wrongdoing and has now been released from his jail term, is now part of the Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty Group and represents the South East. Mote was ordered to pay £8,049 towards the legal costs of the civil appeal. Lord Justice Richards said any application he may now make to appeal further to the House of Lords would be dealt with in writing later.
