The charges relate to a number of allegedly fraudulent expenses claims, South Yorkshire Police said.
He is charged alongside former aide Gareth Arnold, who faces six counts of fraud and a third man, John Woodliff, who faces a single charge under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
All three are due to appear before Sheffield Magistrates’ on 24 September.
I must have missed his resignation but I’m back in time for his conviction trial …
Standing down
In July 2019, O’Mara said he would stand for re-election at the next general election, but later said he would stand down from the House of Commons after the 2019 parliamentary summer recess. He voted for the “Letwin amendment” and against the government during the special sitting of Parliament on 19 October 2019. Postponing his resignation until after October 2019, he eventually stood down at the December 2019 general election. He was succeeded as MP for Sheffield Hallam by Olivia Blake, the Labour Party candidate.
Appearing at Sheffield Magistrates court via video link he denied seven counts of fraud and another charge under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
He appeared at court alongside his former aide Gareth Arnold, 28, of School Lane, Dronfield, who denied six counts of fraud, and John Woodliff, 42, of Hesley Road, Sheffield, who pleaded not guilty to a single charge under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Gareth Arnold (L) and John Woodliff denied all the charges against them when they appeared at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court
The court was told that some of the counts relate to “services purported to have been provided by Gareth Arnold”, and others refer to “services purported to have been provided by Confident About Autism South Yorkshire”.
The offences are alleged to have occurred in periods between October 2018 and February last year.
District Judge Paul Goldspring said the case needed to be heard by a crown court judge and the three men were bailed and will appear before Sheffield Crown Court on 25 October.
He appeared via video link at Sheffield Crown Court where he denied seven counts of fraud.
He appeared in court alongside his former aide Gareth Arnold, 28, of School Lane, Dronfield, who denied six counts of fraud.
The pair and John Woodliff, 42, of Hesley Road, Sheffield also face an additional charge under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Gareth Arnold (L) and John Woodliff denied all the charges against them when they appeared at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court
That indictment was not read out in court, although all three men had previously pleaded not guilty to the charge at a hearing at Sheffield Magistrates’ Court last month.
All three men were released on unconditional bail and the next hearing will take place on 7 January.
The 41-year-old previously denied seven counts of fraud by false representation relating to sums of £28,700 alleged to have been claimed dishonestly.
He faces trial at Leeds Cloth Hall Court this month alongside two others.
On Wednesday he pleaded not guilty to a further charge of falsely claiming to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) that co-defendant John Woodliff was employed as a support officer with responsibilities including “following up on social media queries and comments”.
The pair are due to stand trial on 23 March alongside Mr O’Mara’s former aide Gareth Arnold.
Mr Arnold, 30, of School Lane, Dronfield, Derbyshire, has pleaded not guilty to to six fraud offences.
Mr O’Mara, of Walker Close, Grenoside, Sheffield, and Mr Woodliff, 43, of Hesley Road, Shiregreen, Sheffield, also face a further charge under the Proceeds of Crime Act.
Gareth Arnold, left, and John Woodliff are due to stand trial alongside Jared O’Mara later this month
The former MP appeared at Leeds Cloth Hall Court by videolink for Wednesday’s hearing and the other two defendants appeared in person.
A previous hearing was told some of the counts related to “services purported to have been provided by Gareth Arnold” and others referred to “services purported to have been provided by Confident About Autism South Yorkshire”.
Jared O’Mara, who represented Sheffield Hallam from 2017 to 2019, submitted fraudulent invoices to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), the body which regulates MPs’ business costs and pay.
O’Mara was found guilty at trial of six counts of fraud and cleared of two. The court heard O’Mara, 41, made four claims to IPSA for a total of £19,400 for services he claimed had been provided by “fictitious” organisation called Confident About Autism South Yorkshire. Prosecutors said the former politician had used the postcode of a McDonald’s restaurant in the city as the company’s business address. He was also found guilty of trying to claim £4,650 for services he claimed his “chief of staff” Gareth Arnold had provided to him.
O’Mara was elected to Parliament for Labour in June 2017, unseating former deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, but quit the party the following year and became an independent after he was suspended by the party over comments he’d posted online before becoming an MP.
Co-defendant Arnold, 30, was found guilty of three counts of fraud relating to the bogus autism organisation and not guilty of three.
John Woodliff, 46, of Hesley Road, Shiregreen, was cleared of a single charge of fraud.
O’Mara, of Walker Close, Sheffield, and Arnold, of School Lane, Dronfield, Derbyshire, are due to be sentenced on Thursday.
I’d guess that O’Mara will receive a short custodial sentence - maybe a year or two …
O’Mara, who quit the Labour party about a year after being elected as Sheffield Hallam MP, was convicted of six counts of fraud.
Gareth Arnold, who submitted invoices to IPSA on behalf of O’Mara, was given a 15-month jail term suspended for two years.
The court heard fake invoices worth £24,000 were rejected by IPSA and a false £28,000 contract of employment submitted by O’Mara meant the total value of the fraud was £52,000.
Harsh … but fair …
Through his barrister, O’Mara apologised to the 70,000 constituents in the South Yorkshire constituency for failing to resign in October 2017, the month he was suspended by Labour.
However, Judge Tom Bayliss KC called the apology “entirely disingenuous” and said the fraud was “cynical, deliberate and dishonest”. “You must have realised early on that you were wholly unsuited to the role, but you carried on regardless, you brazened it out; drawing a salary, but doing little or no parliamentary work,” he told O’Mara. “You are not here because of that and I do not aggravate your position because of it. It is irrelevant to these proceedings. That is a matter between you and those who elected you. You are here because you abused your position to commit fraud and you have shown not the slightest degree of remorse in respect of that.”
Reading the reports, it sounds as though there is nothing to pay back - he never received any of the money he fraudulently tried to claim - his fraudulent claims were all rejected by IPSA, so O’Mara didn’t succeed with his attempted fraud.
It’s good to see that IPSA were doing their job properly and rejected his expense claims.
He deserves the 4 year sentence he got - which will likely be 2 years in prison and the other 2 years out on licence.
If he still owes thousands of £££s in drug debts, he may get a rough ride whilst in prison - drug dealers have a long reach, both inside and outside prison.
