Originally Posted by Telegraph

An MEP who claimed £36,000 from public funds to employ a researcher that he was only paying a fraction of the sum, secretly diverted the cash INTO phpbb_his own account by pretending to be her, writes Danial Foggo.

Last month, the Sunday Telegraph revealed that Tom Wise, who represents the UK Independence Party for the eastern region, told the European Parliament's payments office that he was paying Lindsay Jenkins £3,000 a month when in fact his agreement with her was for only a sixth of that amount.

In order to avoid fraud European Union rules state the money must be paid either directly to the assistant or via a paying agent nominated by the MEP. After publication of the Sunday Telegraph article Mr Wise told his party chiefs he had acted as his own paying agent and he also agreed to pay back the extra cash.

But it has emerged that Mr Wise misled his party. In fact the EU payments office believed it was paying Ms Jenkins directly because on the form submitted to the payments office Mr Wise had inserted one of his own bank account numbers under the name of "Stags" and indicated that it belonged to Ms Jenkins. The payments office was also given the contract between Mr Wise and Ms Jenkins in which the same account number had also been inserted next to her name.

Last night Nigel Farage, a UKIP MEP and founder member of the party, said: "We initially thought that Tom Wise was acting directly as a paying agent but we now understand that was not the case".