Ashley Mote

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Ashley Mote. Source: www.europarl.eu.int

Ashley Mote (born January 25, 1936, London) is an Independent Member of the European Parliament for South East England. He was elected in June 2004 as a representative of the United Kingdom Independence Party but has since had the party whip removed.

He previously worked in the marketing industry, and has published two political books - Vigilance - A Defence of British Liberty (2001) about the European Union, and OverCrowded Britain: Our Immigration Crisis Exposed (2003) and refers to himself as "(someone) who has researched EU fraud for many years"[1].

Ashley Mote is also an award-winning cricket writer and is the author of The Glory Days of Cricket (1997) and John Nyren's "The Cricketers of my Time" (1998). He is a prominent member of the revived Hambledon Club and has done much to ensure the return of cricket to Broadhalfpenny Down.

The UKIP removed their whip from Ashley Mote on 15 July 2004 after learning that he faces trial over allegations of housing benefit fraud. Mote failed to tell his party managers of the impending court case, and it only came to their attention when an article appeared in the The Daily Telegraph a few days after the European Union's election [2]. The newspaper reported that he was facing nine charges of false accounting and one of making a false representation.

In a court hearing on 25 November 2004, Mote stated that the charges were politically motivated and asked for an adjournement on the grounds that as an MEP he had some form of parliamentary immunity. In June 2005 the Committee on Legal Affairs and the Internal Market of the European Parliament decided to request that his immunity be waived. [3]

In 2005, to promote transparency, in the EU, Hans Peter Martin, Paul van Buitenen (Europa Transparant) and Ashley Mote decided to co-operate under the name Platform for Transparency (PfT).