far-right group Identity, Tradition and Sovereignty, whose members included Jean-Marie Le Pen and Alessandra Mussolini. The group was dissolved on 14 November 2007. During much of 2007 Mote was in prison in England, having been found guilty of fraud, after his attempts to claim immunity as a member of the European Parliament had proved unsuccessful. He was able to remain an MEP both during and after his months in prison. In 2008, Mote published J'Accuse...!, an anti-EU pamphlet in which he claimed that immigrants were eight times more likely to commit crime than indigenous people. According to Mote, "Jamaican Yardies are selling crack cocaine in Hereford and Cambridgeshire, Chinese Snakeheads are operating in Lancashire and Norfolk, Albanians are running prostitution in Hampshire, Colombians control a cocaine network in Essex." On 9 May 2009, Mote announced he would not stand as a candidate at the 2009 European Parliament election. Benefits fraud conviction Proceedings begin In 2004, the Department for Work and Pensions brought criminal charges against Mote for allegedly claiming £32,000 in income support and £35,000 in housing benefit from Chichester District Council over a six-year period without declaring his monthly earnings of £4,000. Mote was committed for trial at Chichester Crown Court on 27 April 2004. He would face nine charges of false accounting and one charge of making a false representation. On 16 June, at a plea and directions hearing, he pleaded not guilty to the charges and a trial date was fixed for 15 November. The following month, the UK Independence Party withdrew the whip from Mote on 15 July 2004 after learning from an article in The Daily Telegraph that he faced trial; Mote had failed to inform his party of the impending charges. Application for immunity On 4 October 2004, Mote sought to claim immunity from prosecution on the basis of his status as an MEP. His application was heard by Judge Aikens at Lewes Crown Court. He held that Chichester Crown Court was obliged to stay proceedings until the European Parliament had exercised its right to waive immunity. On 3 February 2005, the Attorney General applied to the Parliament whose Committee on Legal Affairs unanimously granted the waiver on 20 June and gave its approval to proceedings continuing in England. On 5 April 2005, Mote appealed the Parliament's decision to the Court of First Instance (CFI). He gave no notice of his application to the