Six jailed for postal vote fraud over rigged election in Slough

The toughest sentence for postal-vote rigging was handed down yesterday as six men were jailed for using ghost voters to help the Conservatives to win a local election.

Mahboob Khan, 46, was jailed for 4½ years for his role in a scam that prosecutors described as part of an epidemic threatening to destroy British democracy.

Eshaq Khan, a father of ten, who ousted a longstanding former Labour mayor to snatch victory in a council seat, was also jailed.

The rigged poll in Slough in May 2007 highlighted how easy the introduction of postal-voting-on-demand has made it to steal elections.

The plot was uncovered when Lydia Simmons and her Labour team questioned how she had been defeated by 120 votes in Central Ward.

They pointed out that at a number of houses up to 19 names, all Asian, had registered in the run-up to the election at the same address, then opted to vote by post.

Charles Miskin, for the prosecution, told Reading Crown Court yesterday that the action of the convicted vote-riggers was like a virus that needed to be eradicated.

“This week the newspapers are full of what has been called the swine fever pandemic, but there has been another epidemic that has been working its way across the United Kingdom in recent years,” Mr Miskin said.

“Not, of course, a threat to life and limb but one that attacks, affects and corrodes the roots of our democracy.”

Mr Miskin referred to a report by Richard Mawrey, QC, the Electoral Commissioner, which served as a warning that unless the election procedures are changed, the nation’s democracy will be at stake.

Citing the report, Mr Miskin said: “The systems to deal with fraud are not working well, they are not working badly. The fact is there are no real systems. Until there are, fraud will continue unabated. The system for voting would disgrace a banana republic.”

Mr Miskin said the plot was hatched when the defendants, all of Pakistani origin, realised the lack of requirements to prove identification when registering for a postal vote.

With the number of applications for postal votes increasing, he said, the electoral system had become prone to fraudsters.

“Postal voting has been in high demand and as a result there has been a surge of ballot fixing, the like of which has not been seen since Victorian times,” he said.

Judge Gordon Risius told the plotters they had intentionally deceived the electorate. “In any democratic country, a conspiracy to corrupt the electoral process is by its very nature a serious criminal offence,” he said.

“If it succeeds, as it did here, the wishes of a majority of the voting community are thwarted.”

He said that although there are no sentencing guidelines for election fraud, he was required to pass sentences that would deter others.

Citing a recent Court of Appeal case, he said: “For such offences it was said that as long as they are proportionate and not unjust, deterrent sentences are called for.”

Mahboob Khan, who pleaded not guilty, was jailed for conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and perjury. Eshaq Khan, 52, and Basharat Khan, 46, were jailed for 3½ years for the same offences.

Arshad Raja received 18 months for conspiracy to defraud; Altaf Khan, 53, was jailed for four months for conspiracy to defraud and Gulnawaz Khan, 58, eight months for personation. continues here

Related Posts by Categories