Disgraced MP Fiona Onasanya loses challenge against conviction for perverting course of justice

Disgraced MP Fiona Onasanya has failed in a bid to overturn her conviction for lying to police as top judges said her appeal bid was branded baseless and “misconceived”.

The trained solicitor, who represents Peterborough in Parliament, was jailed for three months in January after she was found guilty of perverting the course of justice over a speeding ticket.

Standing in the Court of Appeal this morning, Onasanya insisted: “The charge against me was that I had done acts tending or intending to pervert the course of justice.

“I still maintain my innocence, I didn’t do that.”

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The MP, now an independent after being kicked out of the Labour party, complained about the evidence given in her trial, railed at media coverage of her case, and argue mistakes had been made at trial.

But Sir Brian Leveson, sitting with Mr Justice William Davis and Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb, said her appeal was “misconceived” and not based on valid grounds.

“This applicant was tried fairly by the jury who rejected her evidence”, he said. “There was no error in law in the guidance of the judge whose directions in law were clear and accurate. Neither was there any other irregularities at the trial.

“It is a tragedy that she has damaged, probably irreparably, a promising political career, but there is absolutely no basis for challenging the safety of her conviction.”

Disgraced MP Fiona Onasanya arrives outside The Royal Courts of Justice for her conviction challenge on Tuesday
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The judge raised his eyebrows as he noticed Onasanya was representing herself in court with no paperwork or notes to refer to. At one stage she was forced to ask if prosecutor David Jeremy QC could help to answer on of the court’s questions.

Onasanya was convicted after a retrial when jurors heard her car was clocked speeding at 41mph in a 30mph zone in the village of Thorney, near Peterborough, in July 2017, but a man who was in Russia at the time of the offence was put down as the driver on the notice of intended prosecution sent back to police.

Onasanya’s brother Festus admitted filling out the form and was jailed for 10 months after he pleaded guilty to two other similar offences.

The MP was found by trial judge Mr Justice Stuart-Smith to have lied to the police during an investigation into the false information put on the form.

Judge Leveson said Onasanya had taken “considerable issue” with the evidence of two Labour party workers, who said they had seen the MP on the night her car was caught speeding.

But the judge pointed out to her: “We can’t reinvestigate the facts. You, a solicitor, understand that.

“You just ought to know, speaking for myself, this case is rather more based on what actually by the end of the trial wasn’t in issue.”

He said the evidence of the two witnesses was “marginal” after Onasanya admitted she must have been in the car at the time it was speeding, adding: “The Crown’s case was you deliberately failed to identify the driver on three occasions, and the judge decided it was one, the last.”

Onasanya also argued that press coverage at her retrial had “inferred guilt” and her defence case had not been fully aired in public.

But the judge told her: “The courts are very used to dealing with adverse publicity. The jury were warned at the beginning of the trial that they had to focus only on the evidence.”

He said her complaint that her brother’s charges also featured on the trial indictment was “misconceived” as his dishonesty formed a key part of her own defence.

Onasanya, who was elected in 2017, continues to sit as an MP but may face a by-election if a recall petition is signed by more than 10 per cent of her constituents.

She left court without commenting on the outcome of her appeal.