Christina TELEGRAPH 3.11.09 UKIP MEP 'used expenses to buy fine wines and pay debts' [This is 18 months old but is the background to the court case-cs] NEWS OF THE WORLD INVESTIGATION 11/05/2008 HIGH-LIVING Euro MP Tom Wise raises a glass to another rewarding day in Brussels-spent shamelessly DODGING work and SCAMMING a fortune in expenses. As he leaned on the bar guzzling beer Wise bragged to a News of the Worldinvestigator how he milks the taxpayer for THOUSANDS every week in dodgy allowances and travel claims. We followed his freeloading ride on the gravy train for weeks. While his hard-pressed constituents in eastern England struggled with soaring bills, he confessed what he liked best about his job as Member of the European Parliament: "It's the opportunity to make shedloads of money. At the end of the day I made £2,000 this week." Wise, and the other Brit contingent of the 785 MEPs, pocket a handsome £61,820 salary. But a shock News of the World investigation has revealed FOUR loopholes many use to boost that FIVE-FOLD to an incredible £307,588. Greedy Wise, 60 on Tuesday, is an expert at the low-cost airline racket and the daily allowance scam. It has cost the taxpayer up to ONE MILLION POUNDS to keep him in the lap of luxury since he won his seat in 2004. But incredibly he brazenly admitted he had no idea what he was supposed to do to earn his massive pay. He told our undercover reporter, posing as a student on work experience: "It's cushy - £60,000 a year! Thank you very much indeed! What have we got to do for it? Not a lot! I don't know what an MEP's job is. No one's ever given me a job description. I've no idea what an MEP should or shouldn't do. So you make it up as you go along." Damning Tom Wise is not just living high on the hog-he has become the hog, stuffing his face and his wallet on Eurocash. Our dossier of evidence is damning. And Wise's trotter prints are all over it. He unwisely told our undercover female reporter exactly how he makes a fortune on travel expenses-flying on no-frills tickets but trousering the price of a full-price one as allowed under the Euro expenses scheme. On her first day working with him in the Brussels parliament he admitted: "Every MEP travelling from their home country to Brussels gets their travel expenses on exactly the same basis, and it's usually business class airfare. And when I fly Ryanair I say 'Thank you very much!' "I could actually put the Ryanair ticket in and just get that back- but that would be denying me a legally, well I say legally, a genuinely available funding." And we later caught him in the act, as he caught an easyJet flight from Basel Airport, an hour's drive from the second European Parliament centre in Strasbourg, back to Luton Airport in the UK. A booking sheet showed he forked out just £31.97 including taxes for the flight. Alternative full-price open economy tickets go for up to £312. As he took his seat he openly bragged this was his usual bargain flight back to the UK, and his home in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, netting him a nice earner. Waiting for the plane to take off, he said: "Yes, I am milking the system, in as much as I'm overpaid for the amount of expenses I've had. But the system is-'Ignore what it's cost you, this is what we pay you!'" And he added smugly: "I clean up the profit." Wise also admitted profiting from the daily allowance system by signing in for his £226 handout and then staying in cheap hotels. He said: "The hotel I use in Brussels is the Hotel Beau Site. It's 85 euros a night (£67)." Then he bragged that MEPs can simply clock in for their daily allowance but slip away without doing much. As he signed in himself at the Parliament building he said: "You get here at 7am, you sign in...and then you can sod off, because you get your money direct!" The evening our reporter arrived in Brussels Wise demonstrated how generously the daily allowance stretched by dining at posh restaurant Jacques on taxpayers' cash After a slap-up feed of herring to start, followed by steak and a whole bottle of wine to himself the podgy, bearded bon viveur chortled: "I've spent whatever-it-was pounds tonight and I'll still make a humungous profit. Thank you very much!" Wise-who boasts of having a cellar of 1,000 bottles of wine at home-added: "I have a simple philosophy. You and your parents are paying for me. Sorry, tough!" Wise, a former cop, is already under investigation by anti-fraud chiefs. He was kicked out of the UK Independence Party accused of claiming £36,000 for a researcher who he was actually paying just £6,000. As an Independent he now has no party leader keeping him in check and no party business to do. And he showed our investigator just how little he does. While she was with him he went to a handful of meetings-staying only long enough to munch on the free buffet, leaving before work began. On our girl's first morning Wise met her at the parliament building in Brussels and waved her through security. At noon Wise went to a meeting run by Action Aid on The Right to Food, where there were sandwiches and drinks laid out. But the lazy MEP left before the speeches for a coffee break. Spread Half an hour later he waddled to one of the lobbies to listen to Latvian folk singing- and another free spread of wine and food. At 2pm he sauntered off to a private appointment. In the afternoon he attended meetings on biofuel and windfarms but left before the end. Then it was time for a shopping trip, where he splashed out on six bottles of red wine and huge bags of crisps. The hard day was topped off with an art show with yet more free wine and cheese. Wise later offered to take our investigator on an all-expenses-paid trip to the other parliament in Strasbourg. All expenses paid by YOU, that is. But she insisted on paying her own way. And she witnessed Wise doing even LESS work once he got there. He scoffed meals with UKIP pals on Monday and Tuesday night then took our reporter to a fancy cocktail bar. After all that exertion Wise took the following day off to visit a vineyard-where he bought even MORE wine. In words that may haunt him, he quipped: "There are two things that will destroy politicians. One is sex, the other is money."
Tuesday, 3 November 2009
A former British MEP teamed up with his researcher to systematically fiddle tens of thousands of pounds to buy fine wines and to clear debts a court heard yesterday. Tom Wise, 61, who first represented the United Kingdom Independence Party, before he had the whip withdrawn. allegedly received £3,000 as a secretarial assistance allowance every month.
However, he paid Lindsay Jenkins just £500 and spent the rest "in support of his own interests", Southwark Crown Court in London heard.
"He used the funds to buy a car, to purchase fine wines and to pay off some of his credit card debts", said Mark Fenhalls, prosecuting. He added that when the alleged fraud was exposed Mr Wise "took steps to cancel the claim and repay the money".
Mr Wise, of Leighton Buzzard, Beds and Mrs Jenkins, of Barons Court west London, both deny false accounting, Mrs Jenkins, 62, also denies a charge of using criminal property.
The court heard that Mr Wise was originally elected as a Ukip MEP in June 2004. Mr Fenhalls said that, a few months after his election, Mr Wise handed in documents signed by both defendants, to claim £3,000 a month in secretarial assistance. Mr Fenhalls said that, in making the claim, they said the money would be paid "directly" to Mrs Jenkins.
"However, the truth was that the payments were paid directly to a bank account controlled exclusively by Mr Wise".
The case continues
Euro MP Tom Wise bragging about the Brussels gravy train
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