Africa Map

African Press Agency

African Press Agency Logo
   

 Home
 Country Profile
 Useful Links
 Contact us

Home

UK/Jailed MPBack
[Published: Wednesday January 30 2019]

 UK MP who lied to police jailed for three months


LONDON 29 Jan (ANA) - Disgraced MP Fiona Onasanya has been jailed for three months for lying to police after she was caught speeding.

The Peterborough MP was found guilty of perverting the course of justice by claiming someone else was driving her car on July 24 2017.

The 35-year-old solicitor appeared at the Old Bailey to be sentenced alongside her brother Festus Onasanya, 34, who pleaded guilty to three similar charges, including the July incident.

Mr Justice Stuart-Smith jailed the MP for three months and sentenced her brother to 10 months in prison.

It's a tragedy that you find yourselves here and in this predicament, but it is a tragedy that you have brought on yourselves

The judge said: "It is not one law for those in a position of responsibility and power and another for those that do not.

"It's a tragedy that you find yourselves here and in this predicament, but it is a tragedy that you have brought on yourselves."

He told Miss Onasanya: "You have not simply let yourself down, you have let down those who look to you for inspiration, your party, your profession and Parliament."

He told singer Mr Onasanya: "It takes some courage to face the music in cases such as this."

The judge said Miss Onasanya's case was out of the ordinary because the crime was "totally out of character" and possibly committed out of misplaced loyalty to her brother.

Her life as a new MP in 2017 was "extremely hectic and chaotic" and she had just been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis when police began to pursue her.

After her brother falsely filled out her Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP), she made the "disastrous decision" to keep up the lie from November 2017, he said.

The judge said jail could be expected for giving false information even in lesser cases because it "undermines the very system of criminal justice".(ANA)
FA/ANA/29 January 2019------
 

North South News website

Advertise banner

News icon France/African Students
News icon UK/Universities Protest
News icon US/Students Debts
News icon France/Gaza Protest
News icon Chad/Elections
News icon Qatar/Hamas
News icon US/College Campuses Arrest
News icon France/Gaza
News icon US/Israel/Gaza
News icon Turkey/Israel/Gaza

AFRICAN PRESS AGENCY Copyright © 2005 - 2007