The Electoral Commission has recently ruled that the Conservative Party forfeit a £28,000 donation from a company that, in their opinion, was not suitable as a donor:
“The Electoral Commission has agreed the forfeiture of a £28,000 donation from the Conservative Party. This is the full value of a donation that the party accepted from a company called Henley Concierge Limited on 3 July 2013 and that the Commission is satisfied was impermissible.
Under the law political parties and their accounting units must not accept a donation unless it comes from a permissible donor. A company is deemed a permissible donor if it is registered at Companies House and carries on business in the UK.
The Commission considered there was sufficient doubt as to the permissibility of the donor to open a case review to establish whether in fact the donor was permissible. During the course of the case review and following its own checks, the Commission raised concerns with the Conservative Party about the permissibility of the donor. Following these discussions, the party has forfeited the full amount of the donation.”
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/journalist/electoral-commission-media-centre/news-releases-donations/electoral-commission-concludes-two-party-finance-cases?
No less than the Morning Star has this information on the company involved:
“Austrian-born Mario Hinterdorfer owns Henley Concierge Ltd.
Hinterdorfer is also the personal assistant to exiled Russian oligarch Andrey Borodin, the president of the Bank of Moscow until 2011.”
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-cc7d-You-rang,-MLord#.VFqNoucgGf0
It has also fined Nigel Farage £200 for not appropriately declaring his office rent expenses in the UK:
“Nigel Farage MEP has been fined £200 for failing to annually report to the Commission as required by electoral law a regular non-cash donation of the free use of office premises from a donor, Mr John Longhurst. The failure to report had been ongoing since 2001 and has been independently valued as rising from £3,500 to £3,800 per year over this time.
Mr Farage has paid the fine.”
Should anyone wish to see a list of donations that have been breached, a full list can be found here:
Click to access Cases-publication.pdf
and here is a helpful table of offences that can be committed and sanctions that can be applied:
Click to access Table-of-offences-and-sanctions_for_EP.pdf
East Devon Watch 