A former Ukip and Conservative MP avoided jail today despite being convicted of tricking elderly constituents into signing electoral forms backing local candidates.
Bob Spink was found guilty at Southwark Crown Court in London of four counts of submitting false signatures on nomination forms, a type of electoral fraud.
The politician – who served as Tory MP for Castle Point in Essex for five years before defecting to Ukip in 2008 – was sentenced to six months, suspended for two years.
Former Ukip and Conservative MP Bob Spink has been sentenced at Basildon Crown Court to six months, suspended for two years, after being convicted of four counts of electoral fraud
The 69-year-old was today sentenced at Basildon Crown Court alongside James Parkin, 39, who was Ukip’s election agent at the time.
He was found guilty of two counts of the same offence, and found not guilty of three. He had already admitted two counts.
Jurors heard Spink tricked ‘elderly and infirm’ voters into signing the forms in April 2016, without making it clear what the documents were or which party he represented.
The court heard people in Spink’s constituency signed forms believing they were petitions, and having no idea they were supporting the Ukip candidate in the Castle Point Borough Council elections.
None of the candidates included in Spink’s deception won a seat on the council, although a handful finished runner-up, the court heard.
Spink arrives at Basildon Combined Court today ahead of his sentencing for electoral fraud