EU Pigs at the trough of our money

Following cut n pasted from the News of the World

THE News of the World can name and expose the British politicians milking a fortune from our taxes. For years, we have all suspected the European Parliament is a money-pit. But no one could prove the grotesque extent of MEPs' excesses... until now.

In a two-month investigation deep within the Brussels and Strasbourg corridors of power our undercover team found British MEPs pocketing as much cash as they can lay hands on.

And the amounts run into many millions. Many pay their wives, children and lovers up to £60,000 a year from public funds. They fill their boots on expenses at top restaurants and rake off thousands by flying on budget tickets and trousering full fare from the taxpayer.

Our dossier of shame will shock all Europe. And it must at last force Gordon Brown and David Cameron to bring these greedy fatcats to heel.

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By Guy Basnet, Jamie Lyons & Sophy Ridge

As he leaned on the bar guzzling beer Wise bragged to a News of the World investigator how he milks the taxpayer for THOUSANDS every week in dodgy allowances and travel claims.

We followed his freeloading ride on the gravy train for days.

While his hard-pressed constituents in eastern England struggled with soaring bills, he confessed what he liked best about his job as Member of the European Parliament:

"It's the opportunity to make shedloads of money. At the end of the day I made £2,000 this week."

Wise, and the other 784 MEPs, trouser a handsome £61,820 salary. But a shock News of the World investigation has revealed FOUR easy loopholes many use to boost that FIVE-FOLD to an incredible £307,588.

First there's the extra £226 A DAY allowance just for showing up!

Then there's the £39,012 HANDOUT for office expenses, no questions asked, no receipts needed.

Big earner is the £162,856 BUNG to hire staff—which many hand straight to relatives.

And there's the up to £10,000 PROFIT in flying with budget airlines then taking automatic payment for top-price tickets.

Greedy Wise, 60 on Tuesday, is an expert at the low-cost airline racket and the daily allowance scam.

It has cost the taxpayer up to ONE MILLION POUNDS to keep him in the lap of luxury since he won his seat in 2004.

But incredibly he brazenly admitted he had no idea what he was supposed to do to earn his massive pay.

He told our undercover girl, posing as a student on work experience: "It's cushy — £60,000 a year! Thank you very much indeed! What have we got to do for it? Not a lot!

"I don't know what an MEP's job is. No one's ever given me a job description. I've no idea what an MEP should or shouldn't do. So you make it up as you go along."

Damning

Tom Wise is not just living high on the hog—he IS the hog, stuffing his face and his wallet on Eurocash.

Our dossier of evidence is damning. And Wise's trotter prints are all over it.

He unwisely told our undercover girl exactly how he makes a fortune on travel expenses—flying on no-frills tickets but trousering the allowance for full-price deals.

On her first day working with him in the Brussels parliament he admitted: "Every MEP travelling from their home country to Brussels gets their travel expenses on exactly the same basis, and it's usually business class airfare. And when I fly Ryanair I say ‘Thank you very much!'

"I could actually put the Ryanair ticket in and just get that back— but that would be denying me a legally, well I say legally, a genuinely available funding."

And we later caught him in the act, as he caught an easyJet flight from Basel Airport, an hour's drive from the second European Parliament centre in Strasbourg, back to Luton Airport in the UK.

A booking sheet showed he forked out just £63.93 including taxes for the flight. Alternative full-price open economy tickets go for up to £312. As he took his seat he openly bragged this was his usual bargain flight back to the UK, and his home in Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, netting him a nice earner.

Waiting for the plane to take off, he said: "Yes, I am milking the system, in as much as I'm overpaid for the amount of expenses I've had. But the system is—‘Ignore what it's cost you, this is what we pay you!'" And he added smugly: "I clean up the profit."

Wise also admitted profiting from the daily allowance system by signing in for his £226 handout and then staying in cheap hotels. He said: "The hotel I use in Brussels is the Hotel Beau Site. It's 85 euros a night (£67)."

Then he bragged that MEPs can simply clock in for their daily allowance but slip away without doing much.

As he signed in himself at the Parliament building he said: "You get here at 7am, you sign in...and then you can sod off, because you get your money direct!"

The evening our girl arrived in Brussels Wise demonstrated how generously the daily allowance stretched by dining at posh restaurant Jacques on taxpayers' cash.

After a slap-up feed of herring to start, followed by steak and a whole bottle of wine to himself the podgy, bearded bon viveur chortled: "I've spent whatever-it-was pounds tonight and I'll still make a humungous profit. Thank you very much!"

Wise—who boasts of having a cellar of 1,000 bottles of wine at home—added: "I have a simple philosophy. You and your parents are paying for me. Sorry, tough!"

Wise, a former cop, is already under investigation by EU anti-fraud chiefs. He was kicked out of the UK Independence Party accused of claiming £36,000 for a researcher who he was actually paying just £6,000.

As an Independent he now has no party leader keeping him in check and no party business to do. And he showed our investigator just how little he does. While she was with him he went to a handful of meetings—staying only long enough to scoff the free buffet, leaving before work began.

On our girl's first morning Wise met her at the parliament building in Brussels and waved her through security. At noon Wise went to a meeting run by Action Aid on The Right to Food, where there were sandwiches and drinks laid out. But the lazy MEP left before the speeches for a coffee break in one of the many parliament restaurants.

Spread

Half an hour later he waddled to one of the lobbies to listen to Latvian folk singing— and another free spread of wine and food.

At 2pm he sauntered off to a private appointment. In the afternoon he attended meetings on biofuel and windfarms but left before the end. Then it was time for a shopping trip, where he splashed out on six bottles of red wine and huge bags of crisps. The hard day was topped off with an art show with yet more free wine and cheese. Wise later offered to take our girl on an all-expenses-paid trip to the other parliament in Strasbourg. All expenses paid by YOU, that is. But she insisted on paying her own way.

And she witnessed Wise doing even LESS work once he got there. He scoffed meals with UKIP pals on Monday and Tuesday night then took our reporter to a fancy cocktail bar. After all that exertion Wise took the following day off to visit a vineyard—where he bought even MORE wine.

In words that may haunt him, he quipped: "There are two things that will destroy politicians. One is sex, the other is money."

Moustachioed top Tory Roger Helmer is another MEP filling his boots. He has set himself up as a champion for openness and transparency in Brussels. But in an unguarded moment he bragged to our girl of his plans to exploit the crazy expenses system for thousands more—by tweaking the way his home address is listed.

The idea is to make his home in Ashby Magna, Leicestershire, appear at least 1,000 kilometres from Strasbourg—which under crazy Euro allowance rules will net him an extra £268 every time he flies there—£3,216 a year.

At present the distance is calculated from his postal town Lutterworth, which makes it 996km.

Over a blowout meal of scallops and red wine Helmer said: "From Ashby Magna I make it 1,001km.

"If Brussels agrees with me I'll say, ‘OK, backdate it!'"

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Tags: euro gravy train