Tom Wise

Tom (Thomas) Harold Wise (born 13 May 1948 in Bournemouth) was an Independent and UKIP Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for the East of England. A former police officer, he was elected in 2004 as a member of the UK Independence Party but later had the whip withdrawn when allegations of misuse of parliamentary expenses surfaced in The Sunday Telegraph. Following an inquiry carried out by the European Anti-Fraud Office, Wise was formally charged with false accounting and money laundering by Bedfordshire Police. After initially pleading not guilty, he admitted the charges and was sentenced in November 2009 at Southwark Crown Court to a two-year term of imprisonment. He is thought to be the first MEP to be jailed for expenses fraud. Sentencing him, the judge said that Wise had engaged in "deliberate and blatant dishonesty" and had set about to defraud the European Parliament almost as soon as he was elected.