Former Ukip candidate faces retrial on electoral fraud charges

http://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2015/jan/28/ukip-matthew-smith-retrial-electoral-fraud-charges

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A former Ukip parliamentary candidate and election agent is to face a second trial over allegations of electoral fraud.

Matthew Smith was cleared on Tuesday of seven counts relating to forged signatures on nomination forms submitted by the party in the 2013 Norfolk county council elections.

Jurors at Norwich crown court said they were unable to reach a decision on the final two counts of making a false statement in nomination papers.

On Wednesday, Judge Anthony Bate said Smith would face a retrial on those counts on 1 June.

Smith, the Norfolk county council member for Gorleston St Andrews, had been selected to stand for parliament in Great Yarmouth at the general election.

But he was suspended from the party after allegations emerged surrounding Ukip’s nomination forms in elections during which he acted as the party’s agent.

The 27-year-old, from Gorleston, denied six counts of making a false statement in nomination papers knowing that they contained false signatures and three of making false nomination papers.

Fellow Ukip members Michael Monk, 60, of Hopton, and Daniel Thistlethwaite, 20, of Belton, both denied one charge of making a false statement in nomination papers but were cleared on Monday.

Under election rules, all candidates standing as councillors must obtain 10 signatures on nomination forms.

The prosecution alleged that seven out of eight forms submitted by Ukip in that election contained forged signatures.

Giving evidence, Smith claimed that he submitted forms with genuine signatures but these were later substituted in an attempt to smear him.

Smith originally worked for the Conservatives but left acrimoniously in 2011.