Five in postal vote plot to rig election jailed

Jailing them yesterday at Leeds Crown Court, Judge Robert Bartfield said had it not been for exposure by the Press the plan may have been successful in the Bradford West constituency.

The complex police investigation which followed uncovered the plot to try and get Conservative candidate Haroon Rashid elected with the support of fraudulent postal vote applications, many from people who did not exist or had no idea an application had been made on their behalf.

But the court heard the plot to try to "rig" the election was foiled before the conspirators had the chance to convert the applications into votes and Mr Rashid was defeated by the

Labour candidate by more than 3,000 votes.

Former Bradford City councillors Jamshed Khan, 65 of Russell Street, Bradford and Reis Khan, 40 of Whetley Hill, Bradford, along with two other men, Mohammed Rafiq, 70 of Cecil Avenue, Bradford, and Mohammed Sultan, 52 of Toller Lane, Bradford, were each jailed for 21 months.

All four had denied conspiracy to defraud the electoral registration officer of Bradford City Council but were convicted by a jury in July.

A fifth defendant, Alyas Khan, 52 of Hilton Road, Bradford admitted the offence and was jailed for 11 months.

Sentencing them Judge Bartfield said the seat was a marginal constituency and "a few hundred votes" could have affected the result. "Each of you joined an organised campaign to rig the voting system so as to enable false votes to be cast on behalf of Haroon Rashid."

That took various forms including, in some cases, registering people who did not exist and, in others, registering people who had previously lived at addresses who had moved away, or using empty addresses.

The plan was to submit postal voting forms on their behalf which could then be "harvested" with a view to influencing the election, which Judge Bartfield said struck at this country's democratic way of life.

Mark Ainsworth, prosecuting, said Operation Talmine uncovered a well organised and determined attempt to subvert the democratic process and it was newspaper coverage and the threat of the police investigation that prevented the conspirators from succeeding.

The men in court were between them responsible for 213 false postal vote applications. The Crown had looked at about 900 false applications in that constituency involving at least 50 different writers, many of whom had not been traced.

The court heard since the arrests in 2005 two trials had collapsed before the third trial ended earlier this year. Mr Rashid was acquitted of conspiracy on the direction of the judge last year.

The judge said he had reduced the sentences because of the delay involved and the defendants' poor health. He said

he understood new procedures now reduced the risk of such fraud.

Electoral Commission chairwoman Jenny Watson welcomed the sentences saying: "Electoral fraud is a crime and rightly is taken seriously by the police and all those involved in running elections."

A police spokesperson said: "Both Bradford Council and the Returning Officer work in close liaison with the police in regard to any allegations surrounding elections and together we are committed to ensuring that all elections are conducted fairly and impartially."