Former Sheffield Hallam MP Jared O'Mara guilty of fraud over expense claims submitted to fund cocaine habit

Following a trial at Leeds Crown Court, jurors found O’Mara aged 41, of Walker Close, Grenoside guilty of six counts of fraud, relating to invoices submitted to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) to fund what prosecutors describe as an ‘extensive cocaine habit’.

The invoices were submitted between June and August 2019, while O’Mara, who has autism and cerebral palsy was a sitting MP, and none of them were ever paid out, after concerns about a lack of evidence to support the claims were raised.

O’Mara’s ‘Chief of Staff’ Gareth Arnold, aged 30, School Lane, Dronfield has also been found guilty of three counts of fraud, relating to the fraudulent claims.

Jurors also acquitted O’Mara of two of the eight counts of fraud he was charged with, and Arnold was cleared of three of the six counts he faced.

The court was told how O’Mara submitted four claims to IPSA, asking to be reimbursed for services he had paid out for from a ‘fictitious’ organisation called ‘Confident about Autism South Yorkshire’. The sum requested by O’Mara was £19,400.

The counts Arnold was convicted of also relate to Confident about Autism South Yorkshire.

The third defendant, John Woodliff, 42, of Hesley Road, Shiregreen, who was employed as O’Mara’s ‘Constituency Support Officer’ has been acquitted of the one count of fraud he was charged with.

Judge Tom Bayliss KC told the defendants they are to return to Leeds Crown Court tomorrow (February 9), when they may be sentenced.

O’Mara was elected as a Labour MP to represent the Sheffield Hallam constituency in the June 2017 general election, winning the seat from the then leader of the Liberal Democrats, and former deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg.

He subsequently became an independent MP after quitting the Labour Party, following on from being suspended over historic misogynistic and homophobic comments he made online a decade earlier.

O’Mara confirmed he would not run again in Autumn 2019, and Labour’s Olivia Blake was elected to represent the constituency with a slim majority of just 712 in the December 2019 general election.