Jared O'Mara: Jury out in ex-MP fraud trial

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

The jury in the trial of a former MP accused of submitting fraudulent invoices totalling nearly £30,000 has retired to consider its verdict.

Jared O'Mara, who served as MP for Sheffield Hallam, is accused of filing fake invoices to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa), which rejected all the claims.

The prosecution alleges the invoices were being submitted to help him fund an "extensive cocaine habit".

Mr O'Mara denies eight counts of fraud.

The former MP was elected to Parliament for Labour in June 2017, but quit the party the following year and became an independent after he was suspended by Labour over comments he had posted online before becoming an MP.

The 41-year-old, of Walker Close, Sheffield, stood down in 2019, the same year the fraud offences are alleged to have taken place.

Prosecutors allege Mr O'Mara made several fraudulent claims to Ipsa from a "fictitious" organisation called Confident About Autism South Yorkshire, and submitted two invoices from his "chief of staff" Gareth Arnold for media and PR work he had not carried out.

It is also claimed he submitted a false contract of employment for third defendant John Woodliff, "pretending" he worked as a constituency support officer.

The jury was previously told to consider whether Mr O'Mara was acting "dishonestly or incompetently" in filing the expenses claims under examination.

His defence barrister previously told Leeds Crown Court his client "believed he was entitled to make a claim".

Mr Arnold, 30, of School Lane, Dronfield, Derbyshire, denies six charges of fraud.

Mr Woodliff, 43, of Hesley Road, Shiregreen, denies one charge of fraud.