Disgraced former Reform Wales leader ordered to pay back £22,500 after bribery conviction
Nation.Cymru staff/agencies
A former leader of Reform UK in Wales who was jailed for taking bribes to make pro-Russian statements has been ordered to hand back more than £22,500 or face extra time in prison.
Nathan Gill, 53, has been given six months to pay £22,592.41, with a further nine-month prison sentence if he fails to do so.
The former MEP, from Anglesey, is already serving a 10-and-a-half-year sentence after admitting eight counts of bribery committed between December 2018 and July 2019.
Gill was not required to attend the Old Bailey on Thursday, where Judge Richard Marks KC ruled that he had benefited from his crimes by £22,592.41 and ordered him to repay the same amount.
The court heard Gill is expected to sell a rental property to raise the money.
Clare Ashcroft, representing Gill, told the court: “The property needs to be sold. Notice has been given to the tenants. Until these tenants vacate, that property cannot be put on the market.”
It is understood the rental property and Gill’s family home are both on Anglesey.
Gill became the first British politician to be sentenced under the Bribery Act 2010 when he was jailed in November last year.
At the time of the offences, he was a member of the European Parliament, having originally been elected for Ukip.
His activities included making pro-Russian statements about events in Ukraine in the European Parliament and writing opinion pieces for news outlets including 112 Ukraine.
The architect of the bribes was Oleg Voloshyn, a former pro-Russian Ukrainian MP who, along with his wife, was connected to 112 Ukraine.
The television channel was owned by wealthy pro-Russian Ukrainian Viktor Medvedchuk, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and the ultimate source of the requests and money Gill received.
Gill’s crimes were uncovered after he was stopped at Manchester Airport on September 13, 2021, as he attempted to travel to Russia.
His mobile phone was examined and investigators discovered messages between him and Voloshyn.
WhatsApp exchanges included references to “promised x-mas gifts”, “postcards” and “5K”, which referred to payments.
‘Corrupt’
Gill went on to lead Reform UK’s campaign in the 2021 Senedd election but is no longer a member of the party.
Sentencing him last November, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb said Gill had allowed money to corrupt his “moral compass”, amounting to “a grave betrayal of the trust vested in you by the electorate”.
She told him: “Your misconduct has ramifications far beyond personal honour, which is now irretrievably damaged. It erodes public confidence in democracy itself.”
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I am sure the prosecutors would have offered to reduce his sentence if he told them who else was in on this.
Maybe someone whose name rhymes with barrage?
To do this, you must have morals. Nathan Gill has none. But you know what’s sad? He’s been ordered by the judge to sell one of his many flats to pay back the £22,500; this, in turn, will mean his tenants being evicted. It’s always the innocent who suffer.
I do hope he won’t be eligible for early release anytime soon. John Harrington deserves the last word on this:
Treason doth never prosper; what’s the reason?
For if it prosper, none dare call it treason.
This is such good news. Whether or not his rental property sells is immaterial though, he owes the money and that’s that, or face more time in jail. No debt collector has ever been happy to wait around until someone sells something to pay off their debt. I wonder if this is one of the reasons Farage is vainly trying to bat away more probing questions about the infamous 5 million and why he almost choked when the parliamentary investigation was termed “legal” by a BBC journalist. Anything which rattles Farage to his dark core is fine by me. I’d… Read more »
Nathan Gill is a stain on Putin’s patsy Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, and no amount of detergent will ever remove the putrid stench of corruption in a party jammed packed to the rafters with far-right agent provocateurs, hatemongers and extremists.
Lets hope they are keeping the cell next door warm for Farage
Farage keeps his 5 million though.
Funny that.
He could bung him a few quid, after all, that £5m was for his own protection.
Farage used the same language as Gill, gill was sloppy and took peanuts.
And the 5 mil is what we know about. Why does farage get such a high wage from a failing news station for example. Reform and farage are taking crypto, a known way to shift money for crooks.
Channel 4 news exclusive on dodgy dealing in clacton eh.
https://www.channel4.com/news/exclusive-nigel-farage-filmed-undercover-celebrating-secret-new-foreign-donations
Serious rules broken here. Should get an enquiry.
Should have doubled that sum to account for the bribes and grift we still don’t know about
He really is small potatoes
Low hanging fruit
Meanwhile we learn Reform has trousered a further £4m from crypto trader Mr Delo who was convicted in the US in 2022 for failing to implement adequate anti-money laundering controls for his cryptocurrency business
Pardoned by Trump no less
What an awful man. But isn’t it odd that you get 10 years for bribery yet are out out after a couple years for rape?