Jared O'Mara: MP made fake expense claims to fund cocaine use, court told

Jared O'Mara served as MP for Sheffield Hallam from June 2017 to November 2019

A former South Yorkshire MP tried to submit fake invoices for nearly £30,000 in a bid to fund his "extensive cocaine habit", a court has heard.

Jared O'Mara, who represented Sheffield Hallam, is on trial at Leeds Crown Court and denies eight counts of fraud.

Prosecutors allege part of the fraud involved creating a false organisation called "Confident About Autism South Yorkshire" to try to claim payments.

Mr O'Mara, 41, and two other men deny the charges.

Opening the case for the prosecution, Mr James Bourne-Arton described it as a "very straightforward case of fraud".

"In 2019 the defendants Jared O'Mara and Gareth Arnold submitted a series of invoices for payment that were false - that is to say that the services that the invoices related to were a fiction and the defendants knew that," he said.

"They were deliberately making dishonest claims for work that hadn't been done in order to receive the money for themselves."

As well as submitting claims for £19,400 relating to the "fictitious" organisation it is also claimed he submitted two invoices totalling £4,650 from his "chief of staff" Mr Arnold for media and PR work that prosecutors say was never carried out.

The jury was also told Mr O'Mara, who appeared in court by videolink on Monday, submitted a false contract of employment for his friend John Woodliff, 43, "pretending" that Mr Woodliff worked for him as a constituency support officer in an effort to "generate money for the two of them".

Gareth Arnold, left, and John Woodliff, pictured at a previous hearing, are on trial alongside Mr O'Mara

The jury heard the invoices were submitted to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), an independent body which was established to restore public confidence following the 2009 MP expenses scandal.

Mr Bourne-Arton continued: "Jared O'Mara viewed IPSA, and the taxpayers' money that they administered, as a source of income that was his to claim and use as he wished, not least in the enjoyment of his extensive cocaine habit."

The court heard Mr Arnold, 30, alerted South Yorkshire Police by phone on 2 July 2019 "after reaching a point at which he was no longer willing to participate in the fraud".

"He described an undoubtedly sad state of affairs in which O'Mara was plainly unable to cope with the office he held, was in poor mental health and was heavily addicted to cocaine that he was abusing in prodigious quantities," Mr Bourne-Arton told the court.

Prosecutors said genuine members of staff Mr O'Mara employed had not heard of Mr Arnold or Mr Woodliff, with all of the invoices either rejected or not processed.

The court heard financial investigations revealed Mr O'Mara was "living to or beyond his means and in dire need of cash".

The prosecutor said: "The reason for that appears to have been that he was funding a significant cocaine habit of which both Gareth Arnold and John Woodliff were plainly aware."

Mr O'Mara, of Walker Close, Sheffield, was elected to Parliament in June 2017 after a shock victory in Sheffield Hallam over former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Nick Clegg.

He quit Labour in 2018 but remained in office as an independent MP before standing down at the 2019 general election.

Mr Arnold, of School Lane, Dronfield, Derbyshire, denies six counts of fraud, with Mr Woodliff, of Hesley Road, Shiregreen, denying one charge.

The trial, which is due to last 10 days, continues.