UKIP candidate charged with making false statements in nomination form

A UKIP candidate in Cambridgeshire is to be charged with making false statements in a nomination form, the Crown Prosecution Service has said.

Simon Ringrose, Specialist Prosecutor in the CPS Special Crime Division, said: "Following an investigation by Cambridgeshire Police, we have decided that Hugh Mennie, who ran as a UKIP candidate in a local council election in May 2013, should be charged with making false statements in a nomination form.

"It is alleged that Hugh Mennie falsified details on a nomination paper in order to stand for election to Cambridgeshire County Council. The nomination paper requires a proposer, a seconder and eight other signatures from 'assenters' - people who live in the election catchment area. It is alleged that three of these assenter nomination signatures were forged.”

Ringrose added: "Having carefully considered all available evidence, I have concluded that there is sufficient evidence and that it is in the public interest to charge Hugh Mennie with one count of causing or permitting a false statement to appear in a nomination paper. This decision was taken in accordance with the Code for Crown Prosecutors.”

Mennie has been summonsed to face criminal charges and will appear before Cambridge Magistrates' Court on 5 September.

He came third in the election for the Arbury division in May 2013.