Jared O'Mara, a former Labour MP, was sentenced to four years in prison after being found guilty of using fraudulent means to support an "extensive" cocaine habit.O'

Jared O'Mara, a former Labour MP, was sentenced to four years in prison after being found guilty of using fraudulent means to support an "extensive" cocaine habit.

O'Mara, who until June 2019 served as Sheffield Hallam's attorney, was found guilty of six counts of fraud after attempting to claim $24,000 in government funds for services that were never rendered and employment that did not exist.

He filed four claims with a "fictitious" company named Confident About Autism South Yorkshire, which jurors were informed related to his buddy John Woodliff, for a total of £19,400, according to information presented at Leeds Crown Court.

O’Mara was also found to have submitted a false contract of employment for Mr. Woodliff, pretending he worked as a constituency support officer.

Mr. Woodliff was cleared by the jury of having any role in the fraud. The scam, according to Judge Tom Bayliss KC, was "cynical, intentional, and dishonest."

He said to O'Mara, "I have come to the conclusion that even if Jared O'Mara was undoubtedly autistic at the time of the offenses, that does not lessen blame.

"Jared O'Mara, you are a man of great intelligence. I have no doubt that you were able to use good judgment, make informed decisions, and comprehend the significance of your actions.

You might have occasionally acted strangely or shown signs of disturbed thinking.

But whether that was brought on by your disease or by your drug usage (or both), the judge said, "is neither here nor there as far as this deception is concerned.

"You were exploiting your autism diagnosis to extort money from Ipsa to support your cocaine and alcohol-fueled lifestyle. You understood exactly what you were doing with this scam, and you were acting entirely logically, though dishonestly. It was cynical, dishonest, and done on purpose.

When O'Mara's problematic comments from his time as an online user before becoming an MP were made public, Mark Kelly KC, who was standing up for him, stated he wished to apologize to his people "for his failure to quit in October 2017."

"Whether it's true or not, he felt pressured by the media for certain events that had come to light," Mr. Kelly said. "He felt that he was being hounded by the media."

He said before the court that O'Mara "resorted to taking drugs, booze, and withdrawing himself in many respects from those that were around him" because he was "an inadequate individual to cope with the rigors and strains of public life."

With his specific limitations, "these situations were very tough for him to cope with," Mr. Kelly continued.

O'Mara, a former nightclub manager, was cleared of two fraud counts relating to invoices from Gareth Arnold, a friend, for media and PR work that the prosecution said was never performed.

However, he was found guilty of a fraud offense after emailing Ipsa in February 2020 and making false claims that the police investigation into him was over and that he was therefore entitled to payment for the two Arnold-related invoices, which together totaled £4,650.

In June 2019, Arnold was appointed O'Mara's chief of staff. Arnold was convicted on three counts of fraud and exonerated on three others. He received a sentence of 15 months with a two-year suspension.

O'Mara shocked the political world by toppling former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg from what was a secure Liberal Democrat seat in the 2017 general election.

He left the Labour Party as a result of a number of issues, including allegations of sexual harassment, staff resignations, and dismissals, as well as grievances from constituents.

During his trial, it became clear that O'Mara regularly smoked 60 cigarettes, drank a bottle of vodka, and ingested 5g of cocaine.

The court heard that O'Mara, who has cerebral palsy, was initially viewed as a disability rights fighter and later became an advocate for the cause, but he actually did little work for his constituents and infrequently showed up to both parliament and his local office in Sheffield.

Ex-Labour MP Jared O’Mara jailed for fraud to fund ‘extensive’ cocaine habit

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