Jared O'Mara: Jury told of 'growing dysfunction' in office of former Sheffield Hallam MP accused of £30k fraud

Jared O’Mara is accused of committing eight counts of fraud relating to expenses claims he attempted to make to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), totalling approximately £30,000, between July 2019 and August 2019, while he was the member of parliament for Sheffield Hallam. None of the claims were ever paid out by the IPSA, and O’Mara, of Walker Close in Grenoside, Sheffield denies the charges he faces.

During the opening of the trial at Leeds Crown Court on Monday, January 23, jurors were told it is the prosecution case that O’Mara, aged 41, attempted to make the fraudulent claims in order to fund his ‘extensive cocaine habit’. Prosecutors allege O’Mara was assisted in this criminal endeavour by his co-accused, Gareth Arnold – O’Mara’s former lead aide. John Woodliff, 42, of Hesley Road, Shiregreen is the third defendant, and allegedly pretended to work for O’Mara as a ‘Constituency Support Officer’ while fraudulently claiming a salary.

Georgia Wilson, Director of MP Standards at IPSA, was the first witness to give evidence, during the second day of the trial on Tuesday, January 24.

Under cross-examination from O’Mara’s barrister, Mark Kelly KC, Ms Wilson said she agreed there was a ‘growing dysfunction’ in O’Mara’s constituency office.

This followed what Mr Kelly described as ‘hemorrhaging' of staff in March and April 2019, adding that ‘if there was any experience’ in his office, it had ‘gone out of the window’ by the time of the alleged offending.

During questioning from prosecution barrister, James Bourne-Arton KC, Ms Wilson told jurors that she first became aware of what Mr Bourne-Arton described as ‘staff expenditure issues’ relating to O’Mara in ‘June or July 2019’.

“You attended a meeting on July 22, 2019 with Detective Sergeant Andy Shields. He told you police had become aware of an allegation of a fraudulent claim to IPSA,” Mr Bourne-Arton said.

Ms Wilson replied: “He asked me to clarify whether we received a claim for approximately £3,000.” She told the court that was able to verify that such a claim had been made during the course of the meeting, after checking with colleagues.

The court heard how Ms Wilson subsequently looked into other expense claims submitted on O’Mara’s behalf and engaged in a dialogue with the then MP concerning ‘his side of things’ and to see whether he required any support.

Mr Bourne-Arton asked Ms Wilson whether she noticed any irregularities with any of the invoices she reviewed, and she referred to inconsistencies with the ‘formatting’ and ‘font’ between invoices submitted on behalf of an organisation called ‘Confident About Autism South Yorkshire’ (CAASY). She also told the court that claims were refused due to a ‘lack of detail’ and ‘evidence’ relating to matters such as the dates stated.

The prosecution allege CAASY is a bogus support service which does not exist, and around two thirds – £20,000 – of the allegedly fraudulent claims relate to CAASY.

“Normally, you would expect an organisation to have the same software to submit invoices, and all would look the same,” Ms Wilson said, and suggested this had not been the case for the invoices submitted by O’Mara’s office for services reportedly rendered from CAASY.

Mr Kelly asked Ms Wilson whether she would agree that all of the invoices alleged to have been submitted fraudulently were received in ‘June [2019] or thereabouts,’ to which she responded ‘yes’.

Ms Wilson also agreed that invoices submitted prior to June 2019 were subsequently reviewed, and no issues were found. The court was told O’Mara’s former office manager, Margaret Flude, whose professional relationship with the former MP had ceased by the time of his alleged offending, had been a ‘designated’ proxy who was entitled to act on his behalf for matters including expense claims. Ms Wilson said Ms Flude was regarded as ‘one of the good, diligent’ proxies by members of her team.

Mr Kelly also asked Ms Wilson whether she agreed that all of the invoices ‘coming through in June 2019 were adhoc’ and appeared ‘amateurish’ with ‘inconsistent production,’ to which she replied ‘yes’.

Ms Wilson told the court that other reasons for claims being refused included the fact they were not submitted within the required 90 days of an expense being incurred; and that all expenses to be taken from the disability budget for O’Mara, who has cerebral palsy and autism, had to be agreed with IPSA in advance and had not been, and were refused on that basis. They include services allegedly procured from CAASY.

Arnold, aged 31, of School Lane, Dronfield, is accused of six counts of fraud, while Woodliff is accused of one count of the same offence. All three defendants deny the charges they face. The trial continues.