Jared O'Mara trial: Ex-Yorkshire MP accused of fraud will not give evidence in his defence, jury told

By Katie Dickinson
Published 31st Jan 2023, 15:47 BST
A former MP accused of making fraudulent expense claims to fund a cocaine habit will not be giving evidence in his defence, a jury has been told.

Jared O'Mara, 41, who represented Sheffield Hallam from 2017 to 2019, is on trial accused of submitting fake invoices to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) in a bid to fraudulently claim up to £30,000 in taxpayers' money.

On Tuesday Mark Kelly KC, defending O'Mara, told jurors that he would not be calling any evidence. Leeds Crown Court heard the defendant, who has been attending the trial via video link, had been given the opportunity to give evidence either at court or over the link.

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O'Mara is accused of making four fraudulent claims to Ipsa between June and August 2019 from a "fictitious" organisation called Confident About Autism SY, and submitting two invoices from his friend and "chief of staff" Gareth Arnold for media and PR work that prosecutors say was never carried out.

41-year-old Jared O’Mara is currently on trial at Leeds Crown Court accused of eight counts of fraud relating to £30,000 of unsuccessful claims made to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority between June and August 2019, while he was the MP for Sheffield Hallam.41-year-old Jared O’Mara is currently on trial at Leeds Crown Court accused of eight counts of fraud relating to £30,000 of unsuccessful claims made to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority between June and August 2019, while he was the MP for Sheffield Hallam.
41-year-old Jared O’Mara is currently on trial at Leeds Crown Court accused of eight counts of fraud relating to £30,000 of unsuccessful claims made to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority between June and August 2019, while he was the MP for Sheffield Hallam.

It is also claimed that O'Mara submitted a false contract of employment for another friend, John Woodliff, "pretending" that he worked as a constituency support officer. On Tuesday Arnold, 30, told the court he "absolutely" did the work on both invoices that related to him. He said O'Mara would "regularly" call him for help after he lost the Labour whip, became an independent MP and later sacked most of his staff "overnight" in around April 2019.

Arnold told jurors one invoice for £2,100 was for "ad-hoc" work he did for O'Mara throughout 2019 before becoming his chief of staff in June, which included a planned YouTube series of recorded speeches, and media coaching "roleplay" where Arnold would pretend to be Jeremy Paxman.

He said the second invoice for £2,550 was a "retainer" for his services in PR and reputation management, meaning O'Mara could call him at any time. Arnold said he submitted the invoices in June 2019 after O'Mara told him he wanted to make sure he was paid for his time, but that he was unable to provide evidence of the work required by Ipsa because "my records weren't as complete as I thought they would be".

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Arnold, who was previously an intern for Liberal Democrat MP Greg Mulholland and worked in marketing, said he first met and became friends with O'Mara in 2016 through the Sheffield music scene in 2016. He told the court he first asked O'Mara whether he had any "support" in dealing with the media after he "got bad press" when "some unwise comments" he made on music forums before becoming an MP came to light.

Arnold said the revelation of these comments led to O'Mara being "kicked out" of the Labour Party. O'Mara is charged with eight counts of fraud by false representation, with Arnold jointly charged with six of the offences, and Woodliff jointly charged with one. O'Mara won Sheffield Hallam for Labour from former Liberal Democrat leader Sir Nick Clegg in 2017, but later left the party after a series of controversies.

He stayed in office as an independent MP but did not contest the 2019 general election.

O'Mara, of Walker Close, Sheffield; Arnold, of School Lane, Dronfield, Derbyshire; and Woodliff, of Hesley Road, Shiregreen, Sheffield, deny all charges.

The trial continues.