SFO considers EU accounts case
The Serious Fraud Office is examining whether it can launch a criminal investigation into the government's role in the 'persistent and massive misuse of public money' by the European Commission.
Link: Major reshuffle for EC
Last week MEP Ashley Mote, with the support of former EC chief accountant Marta Andreasen, submitted documents to the SFO detailing allegations of accounting fraud and corruption within the commission.
Mote accuses the government of failing to hold the EC to account for the mismanagement of its budget.
‘It is well known that there is endemic fraud in the EU,’ said Mote. ‘In effect we have seen massive fraud of UK taxpayers money, overseen by successive ministers. The only remedy left to us is to invoke the law.’
Mote, who had the UKIP whip withdrawn earlier this year, handed over documentation gathered by Andreasen during her time at the EC in the hope that the SFO could probe the government?s alleged complicity towards fraud in the European Union.
A spokesman for the SFO said that it was currently examining the documents presented by Mote ‘to establish whether there is something for us to take forward’.