A BRITISH member of the European Parliament was today found guilty of 21 charges of deception by falsely claiming benefits.

Ashley Mote, 71, a former UK Independence Party representative, was found guilty of eight charges of false accounting, eight of obtaining a money transfer by deception, four of evading liability and one of failing to notify a change of circumstances.

The MEP for South East England, who lives in Binsted, was acquitted at Portsmouth Crown Court of a further four charges in the case brought by the Department of Work and Pensions.

The four-week trial heard that Mote ran a successful business which collapsed in 1989.

He then began to claim income support, housing benefits and council tax benefits but failed to notify the benefits agency when he began earning money through various enterprises including spread betting on currency markets during the period of February 1996 and September 2002, during which period he received £73,000 in benefits.

The court heard he used this money to pay off credit card debts which he had run up funding an ''extravagant lifestyle'' such as restaurant dinners, private health care and holidays to the US, France and the Caribbean.