As revealed exclusively in this morning’s Daily Mail, The Sunlight Centre for Open Politics have instructed Bark and Co solicitors to prepare to prosecute the former Home Secretary for fraud.

The Sunlight COPs are now raising thousands of pounds for the case. Please donate to our cause by cheque, card or paypal here.

Here is what the Daily Mail had to say:

Whitehall mole will prosecute Jacqui Smith over expenses

By TIM SHIPMAN

A Whitehall whistleblower is to launch a private prosecution against Jacqui Smith, accusing her of expenses fraud. Miss Smith, who resigned as Home Secretary last month, racked up a £116,000 allowance on her family house in Redditch, while claiming her main residence as her sister’s spare bedroom in London.

Christopher Galley, a former Home Office civil servant, claims however that she spent more time at the West Midlands address. Jacqui Smith: Claimed £116,000 Under the banner ‘Bringing Jacqui to Justice’, he is preparing to file a complaint with Westminster Magistrates Court accusing her of fraud by misrepresentation.

Mr Galley, 27, was fired last November after he was exposed for leaking documents on the Government’s immigration policy to Tory spokesman Damian Green. He is now the research director of the Sunlight Centre for Open Politics, a pressure group set up to campaign for transparency. The group yesterday instructed lawyers with the London firm Bark & Co, which specialises in fraud and hunting down benefit cheats.

Mr Galley worked for two years as a diary manager to ministerial special advisers and was in the private office of ministers Vernon Coaker and Tony McNulty. He had access to Miss Smith’s diary between January and November last year, when he was fired. He said: ‘From what I know having seen Jacqui Smith’s diary and having watched her daily routine, I saw that she came in on Monday afternoon and left on Thursday evening.  ’From what I can see Redditch was her main home and London was her second home.’ Neighbours of Miss Smith’s sister have claimed the former minister was rarely there for more than a few days a week. Mr Galley will sign an affidavit detailing his own information on Miss Smith’s movements.

The group has already made a freedom of information demand, calling on the Home Office to produce Miss Smith’s appointments diary. Last night it sent another request for details of her movements from the Whitehall car service. It is working to raise the six-figure sum needed to fight the case in court. Harry Cole, of the centre, said: ‘There is so much public anger about expenses and the police have shown no willingness to take up cases, so we’re taking the law into our own hands. ‘This will be an expensive test case but it could lead to dozens of others.’ In an interview last week, Miss Smith said she quit the Cabinet because of the ‘hurt’ she felt when it emerged that her husband had charged two pay-per-view pornographic films to the taxpayer. While arguing vociferously that she spent most of her time in London, she has not provided documented proof to the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards John Lyon. A possible precedent is former Tory MP Michael Trend, who was forced to stand down over his expenses claims. He claimed in the same way as Miss Smith while he was staying with a friend in London. He had to repay £90,277.

Miss Smith did not return messages left for her yesterday.

 

Published on July 15th, 2009 by Harry Cole