A FORMER MP was sentenced to four years in prison today for making fraudulent expenses claims to fund an “extensive” cocaine habit while in office.

Jared O’Mara was convicted of six counts of fraud after trying to claim around £24,000 of taxpayers’ money for work that was never carried out and jobs that did not exist.

The 41-year-old, who defeated former deputy prime minister Nick Clegg to win the constituency of Sheffield Hallam in Labour’s 2017 surge, went on trial for submitting “dishonest” invoices to the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (Ipsa) between June and August 2019.