Former MP found guilty of making £20,000 in fraudulent expenses claims

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Former MP Jared O’Mara has been found guilty of fraud, after submitting fake expenses of nearly £20,000 to fund his cocaine habit. Jared O’Mara, who represented Sheffield Hallam from 2017 to 2019, was thousands of pounds in debt to a drug dealer, the trial at Leeds Crown Court was told. He submitted fraudulent invoices to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), the body which regulates MPs’ business costs and pay.

O’Mara, aged 41, was found guilty of six counts of fraud.

He was cleared of two.

O’Mara’s co-defendant, 30-year-old Gareth Arnold, was found guilty of three counts of fraud and not guilty of three.

John Woodliff, 46, was cleared of a single charge of fraud.

O’Mara and Arnold will be sentenced on Thursday.

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