UKIP: ELCOM now reviewing complaints against UKIP. Stuart Agnew was advised to resign by colleagues

The dictionary definition of fraud: "deceit, trickery, sharp practice, or breach of confidence, perpetrated for profit or to gain some unfair or dishonest advantage."

We can confirm that ELCOM are now ‘reviewing’ the complaints made against UKIP. The Labour Party is just one of the many complainants.

Lord Pearson, Nigel Farage, Stuart Agnew, Peter Reeve and David Bannerman are the subjects of the complaints.

These complaints are based on the report first published in The Sunday Times. See: LINK

You will recall that Pearson and Agnew advised an undercover reporter how to make an illegal donation to the party.

Agnew told the reporter that a person could remain anonymous by channelling funds through an unincorporated association called Global Britain, which was set up by Lord Pearson in 1997.

Electoral Commission rules state unincorporated associations, which do not have to file accounts, can make donations to political parties but the money must not be channelled from an individual who is seeking to remain anonymous.

Even for donations of less than £25,000 the association is still required to disclose the true name of any donor who is using it as a proxy to give money.

Agnew was recorded as saying:

“I've spoken to Nigel Farage and he says at the moment you can put £25,000 into Global Britain and you will remain anonymous."

Agnew suggested that other ways of keeping a potential donor's identity secret included giving money as a gift to another person who then donated it:

“Your mother can make you a loan of £100,000 to buy a house ... and you would then become a donor to the party for £100,000 and your name would go up on the Electoral Commission website.”

When the real donor died, she could state in her will the loan was now a gift. “You are seen to be the donor rather than her,” he added.

Agnew also confirmed that he and David Bannerman are illegally paying Peter Reeve out of their EU staffing allowances:

“I can tell you that Peter is paid partly by me out of my assistance allowance here partly by David Bannerman. He does very little work for us, virtually none. He is working for the party. And that’s strictly illegal.”

Another undercover reporter spoke to Lord Pearson who said the money given to Global Britain would be passed “straight on” to UKIP.

Asked if he could guarantee the donor's name would not come out he said:

“Yes, we did it in the European elections (in 2009). We passed on £80,000 from one person in effect ... and that caused no difficulty at all.”

This donation was made by Patrick Barbour via Global Britain. We can confirm that Mr Barbour was less than amused to discover that UKIP had named him as the donor in question!

UKIP claimed in a press statement that:

"This anonymous donation was at the time perfectly legal and within the guidelines set down by the Electoral Commission. This donation was fully disclosed by Ukip in the second quarter of 2009."

It is interesting to note that ELCOM have no record of UKIP contacting them about this donation.

Here are the facts:

We have Pearson, Farage and Agnew conspiring to break electoral law.

We have flagrant attempts to circumvent the law by advising someone how to remain anonymous.

We have Bannerman, Agnew and Reeve conspiring to misuse EU allowances.

They have been caught gaining money for the party by deception - aka fraud.

It is very interesting to note that UKIP has failed to take ANY action against, or even an investigation into, Agnew and Bannerman, despite publicly admitting that they are illegally using tax payers' money for personal projects. UKIP’s total silence on this issue can only mean that the party condones illegal activity as long as it benefits UKIP.

However, we can confirm that at least two UKIP MEPs in Brussels advised Stuart Agnew to resign following the publication of the report in The Sunday Times. A gloomy Agnew declined to do so.

We are rather surprised at the naivety of the two MEPs in question.

Did they really think that Farage would allow Agnew to fall on his sword? Agnew gained his position as an MEP thanks to Farage and Reeve rigging the selection process. To have permitted Agnew to resign would have seriously undermined Farage and reopened questions about the whole MEP selection process.

Agnew has openly boasted how he bought his way onto the list by making large donations to the party. He also ensured that his friend - John Savory - got to sit on the selection panel. Such is the level of corruption in UKIP.

And what about Bannerman and Reeve? They are as guilty as Agnew. Their positions in UKIP would have become quickly untenable if Agnew had resigned.

UKIP’s leadership are currently waiting on events and praying for a miracle. We wouldn’t advise them to pray for too long. Some prayers are sadly never answered!