Former Labour MP Jared O'Mara has been sentenced to four years in prison for defrauding taxpayers of about £52,000 through false expense claims. The 41-year-old, who represented Sheffield Hallam from 2017 to 2019, was convicted of six counts of fraud after attempting to claim money for work that was never carried out and jobs that did not exist.
Sentencing O'Mara at Leeds Crown Court on Thursday, Judge Tom Bayliss KC stated that the former MP's autism diagnosis did not reduce his culpability. 'You knew perfectly what you were doing with this fraud, you were behaving perfectly rationally, if dishonestly, and you were using your autism diagnosis to extract money from Ipsa to fund your cocaine and alcohol driven lifestyle,' the judge said. 'It was deliberate, it was cynical and it was dishonest.'
The court heard that O'Mara submitted 'dishonest' invoices to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) between June and August 2019. He made four claims totalling £19,400 from a fictitious organisation called 'Confident About Autism South Yorkshire', which referred to his friend John Woodliff. O'Mara also submitted a false contract of employment for Woodliff, pretending he worked as a constituency support officer. The total value of the fraud was approximately £52,000, including Woodliff's proposed salary and expense claims relating to Gareth Arnold, O'Mara's former chief of staff.
Arnold was sentenced to 15 months, suspended for two years, after being found guilty of three fraud charges. Woodliff was cleared by the jury. Prosecutor James Bourne-Arton said the fraud was not a victimless crime, as it undermined 'public trust and confidence' in MPs.
O'Mara, who did not give evidence at trial, apologised through his barrister for failing to resign in 2017 after controversial online comments were revealed. However, Judge Bayliss described the apology as 'entirely disingenuous', noting that O'Mara had shown 'not the slightest degree of remorse' for the fraud. The judge added that O'Mara 'abused his position as a member of parliament to commit these multiple frauds'.
