Arabic version: النائب السابق في جنوب أستراليا فريزر إليس يتجنب السجن
According to ABC News, former South Australian MP Fraser Ellis has received a 10-month jail term suspended on condition he signs a 12-month good-behaviour bond after being convicted of seven counts of deception.
Ellis, the former member for Narungga on the Yorke Peninsula, was sentenced in the Adelaide Magistrates Court over misuse of the Country Members Allowance, an accommodation fund for regional MPs travelling for parliamentary duties. Magistrate Simon Smart said the claims were “not mistakes but deliberate falsehoods”.
The court heard Ellis fraudulently received $4,676 in dishonest claims for 20 nights between December 5, 2018, and May 1, 2020. The money has been repaid. Mr Smart said the offending involved gross breaches of trust because Ellis was a public official using public money.
Ellis was found guilty of four deception counts in 2024 and acquitted of 19 further counts. After the Director of Public Prosecutions appealed, the Court of Appeal replaced three acquittals with convictions in July. He had been a Liberal MP when the offending occurred, but left the party in 2021 to sit as an independent after allegations became public.
Outside court, Ellis said he was grateful the six-and-a-half-year proceedings had ended but continued to disagree with the court. He said he believed his conduct reflected “casualness” or “recklessness” rather than criminality, while accepting the punishment imposed.
