Really Deep Trough needed for this Snouter

I haven't commented much directly about expenses but this must take the biscuit for the depth of trough needed, in fact it must take a lorry load of Biscuits.

Government Chief Whip and Minister for the North East Nick Brown has managed to trough £18,800 worth of food in four years with no receipts. No wonder he looks like a Porker.

This must be one of the deepest troughs by any MP. I calculate that, as this is his second home, he probably spends about 150 days there a year which by my reckoning makes it over 30 quid a day on food. The troughs must also be expensive down there in Newcastle. I could live by myself for less than 10 quid a day shopping at M&S.

I won't go onto say what else he has claimed , no I will, according to The Daily Telegraph he was also said to be claiming regular £200 monthly bills for repairs and maintenance, plus £250 a month for cleaning, without any receipts. Amazing that, just under the limits for no receipts for MP's.

Never mind Nick says

"I am working flat out for the people that I represent and the politics that I believe in.

A true porky there.

Nick Brown defends expenses claims (From The Northern Echo)

UKIP and Expenses - True Troughing

I see the UKIP party seem to be the main beneficiaries of the expenses scandal when we look at the current polls for the coming European Elections on June 4th 2009.

Well how easily can the public can be deceived as the UKIP party has probably the worst record on expenses of all the parties involved in the European Elections, including one, Ashley Mote who was elected in 2004 for the UKIP party and then spent 6 months in prison after being found guilty of 21 charges of deception. Amazingly uder EU laws he was allowed to retain his MEP status.

They also have another MEP elected under the UKIP banner who has been charged with a number of cases of false accounting and money laundering.

Derek Frame, a reviewing lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service’s special crime division, said:

“Following the publication of a news article in October 2005 relating to Mr Wise and Ms Jenkins, the European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) began an investigation into Mr Wise’s use of allowances. Olaf subsequently passed the investigation to Bedfordshire Police Economic Crime Unit for investigation.

“These charges relate to alleged offences committed between October 2004 and September 2005. At the time Mr Wise was a MEP representing the United Kingdom Independence Party and Ms Jenkins was employed by him as a researcher.”

This is not a bad count for a party that only started out with 12 MEP's. Now two have had to leave because of the depth they had managed to get their snouts ito the EU trough.

MEP Tom Wise charged with fiddling accounts and money laundering - Times Online

Large Snouts, Large troughs

Over at the EU I see there is a secret report of how deep some MEP's have managed to get their snouts into the ever-increasing trough of OUR money.

Apparently the MEP Mr Davies was allowed confidential access to the secret internal audit report and immediately reported it to the EU's anti-fraud squad for immediate action.
According to Mr Davies

"This report is dynamite - and makes the Derek Conway affair at Westminster look like small change,"

"When I looked at this report my first reaction was to laugh at the outrageous extent of the abuses.

"Then that feeling turned to anger and the realisation that the police or the anti-fraud people should be looking at this."

Every MEP is eligible for about £130,000 a year to pay for staff. One case has the whole allowance being used but no staff being employed. One MEP who has seen the report said that direct payments had been made to political parties by MEPs. There are apparently many cases of MEPs failing to make social security payments for alleged employees.

Franz Bruner, director general of Olaf, the EU's internal anti-fraud squad, said he was launching an inquiry and had demanded to see the audit report by the end of this week.

BBC NEWS | World | Europe | Call for MEPs' cash fraud probe