Disgraced former MP Jared O'Mara faces a possible prison sentence after being found guilty of fraud.
Jared O'Mara spoke only three times in parliament during his 29 months as an MPFormer MP Jared O'Mara faces a possible prison sentence after being convicted of six counts of fraud. The disgraced politician, who is due to discover his fate on Thursday, was convicted alongside his former chief of staff of plotting to submit fake expense claims. This is how he went from obscurity to criminality via Westminster.
He partied until 06:00 BST the following morning, before later turning up bleary-eyed to thank local campaigners.Three months after his stunning ousting of Mr Clegg from a once-safe seat, O'Mara's political career was on the rocks as he was suspended by Labour over accusations he had posted misogynistic, homophobic and racist comments online more than a decade earlier. It would prove to be only the beginning of his troubles.
and co-defendant Arnold was found guilty of three counts of fraud and not guilty of three, did the full chaotic story of O'Mara's stint at Westminster emerge. Despite claiming to be the first MP with autism, O'Mara invented a "fictitious" autism charity to defraud taxpayers. Sheffield-born O'Mara entered the 2017 snap election with little experience of politics beyond a handful of unsuccessful bids to be a local councillor.
"I had to ring Nick Clegg to tell him he'd lost. Then, seeing Jared looking like a rabbit in headlights, clearly he wasn't expecting it," he told the BBC. In October 2017, political website Guido Fawkes first unearthed online remarks, posted between 2002 and 2004, in which O'Mara, then in his twenties, invited members of pop group Girls Aloud to "an orgy" and mocked Pop Idol winner Michelle McManus for being "fat".he had called her an "ugly bitch" in an outburst in a Sheffield nightclub in March 2017.
He pledged to continue dealing with local casework, but staff who gave evidence during O'Mara's trial said he was "almost non-existent" in his Sheffield office and visited "once, possibly twice" in a six-month period. Frustrated Sheffield Hallam constituents set up a Facebook group to discuss their concerns and within days, hundreds had joined it.
O'Mara assembled a new team of people from his social circle with no political background, including Arnold - who, referring to rock band Oasis, he described as "the Noel to my Liam" - and John Woodliff, a former doorman at West Street Live and O'Mara and Arnold's co-defendant who was cleared of any wrongdoing at their crown court trial.
His barrister argued he had simply been an "incompetent" politician rather than a dishonest one, while "suffering badly" from anxiety and depression.
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