A former MEP has been jailed for two years for channelling £39,000 of expenses into a secret bank account.

Tom Wise, who is thought to be the first British politician to be sent to prison for fiddling his expenses, pretended that his “secretarial assistance allowance” had paid for his researcher. The independent MEP, who was elected for UKIP but lost the party whip when his offences emerged, instead squandered the money on fine wines, a new car and clearing credit card debts.

Southwark Crown Court in London was told that he could have amassed up to £180,000 had the false accounting not been discovered.

Judge Geoffrey Rivlin QC, sentencing, said that Wise was involved in “sleight of hand”. “The position which you held as an elected representative was one of high privilege and trust,” the judge said.

“This offence involved a prolonged gross breach of that trust. It is no exaggeration to say that you had hardly got your feet beneath your desk as an MEP before you were planning to defraud the parliament to which you were elected and the people you were elected to serve.

“This was very deliberate and blatant dishonesty. You did not fall into this offence as a result of some unfortunate combination of unforeseen circumstances which happened to suddenly present you with temptation. You knew the system of expenses inside out and this was a claim you devised and planned with some care.”

Wise, 61, from Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, had denied false accounting between October 14 and November 16, 2004.

During his trial, though, just before the UKIP leader Nigel Farage was to give evidence against him, Wise changed his plea and confessed.

He said that he was entirely to blame and that Lindsay Jenkins, his 62-year-old researcher, whom he had asked to sign blank documents, was innocent. Mrs Jenkins, from West London, who had also been on trial, was subsequently cleared of a charge of false accounting as well as an allegation of using criminal property.

The court was told that Wise was elected as the East of England MEP for UKIP in June 2004. But with the discovery of his dishonesty the party withdrew the whip, forcing him to becomean independent. He did not stand for re-election in June.

Just a few months after starting his new job Wise handed in two documents to support his application for the payment, despite European parliamentary rules forbidding staff wages going to MEPs.

Mark Fenhalls, for the prosecution, said: “The application was for £3,000 per month to be paid out by the European Parliament for the period October 1 2004 to September 30 2009, a potential total over the five years of £180,000.”

Mr Fenhalls told jurors that Wise pretended the money would be paid directly to Mrs Jenkins. “However, the truth was the payments were made directly to a bank account controlled exclusively by Mr Wise.”

Police found that he had spent blown £3,500 of taxpayers’ cash on 19 cases of fine wine — along with £1,000 of his own money — used £6,800 to clear credit card bills and squandered £6,400 on a second-hand Peugeot 206.

The judge said that Wise would also have to pay £30,000 towards prosecution costs.

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