drug addiction
Coke billed as expenses: British ex-MP has to go to jail
He financed his cocaine addiction with fake expense reports. A former British Labor MP has been sentenced to four years in prison.
This political career ended quickly: the former Labor MP Jared O’Mara has to go to prison for four years because he used falsified statements to claim the costs of his cocaine consumption as expenses, among other things. That was decided by a court in the English city of Leeds, as the British news agency PA reported on Thursday.
Jared O’Mara is said to have attempted to illegally collect a total of £52,000 (€58,700) in taxpayers’ money. Among other things, he submitted documents from an organization that allegedly works for people with autism. But the organization did not exist, as it turned out later. And the address given by O’Mara was that of a McDonald’s. He pretended to hire a friend as an employee and also charged the costs for this, although he did not bring anything in return.
Numerous allegations against the deputy
O’Mara was elected for the Labor Party in the Sheffield Hallam constituency in 2017, ousting former Deputy Prime Minister and former leader of the Liberal Democrats Nick Clegg. However, it soon became apparent that he was not up to the task. Numerous allegations, ranging from homophobic statements online to harassing an employee with inappropriate Whatsapp messages, quickly made him an outsider. He left the Labor Party but retained his MP until the next election in December 2019.