Labour MP tried to give speeding points to former lodger who was in Russia at the time, court hears

A Labour MP became “trapped” by lies after trying to give speeding points to a former lodger who was in Russia at the time, a court has heard.

Fiona Onasanya, the member for Peterborough, was allegedly driving her Nissan Micra when it was caught on camera travelling at 41mph in a 30mph zone in July last year.

She allegedly told authorities that Aleks Antipow, a Russian man who briefly lived in a Cambridge property she and her brother Festus rented, had been behind the wheel. 

But Mr Antipow was “at home with his parents in Russia” on July 24, while the number and address provided for him were linked to Ms Onasanya’s brother, the Old Bailey was told.

The 35-year-old MP went on trial accused of perverting the course of justice by providing false details, a charge which she denies. 

The jury was told that Ms Onasanya had adopted the same “method of evading prosecution” used by her brother, Festus Onasanya, in response to several speeding offences.

Prosecutor David Jeremy QC said: “This case did start as a case about an offence of speeding. 

“It has become, as a result of the choices made by Ms Onasanya, a case about lying.

“Lying persistently and deliberately, lying all the way to this court and it may be even lying in this court...lying to avoid prosecution for a breach of the laws that apply, or should apply, to all of us.”

Ms Onasanya’s car was caught speeding close to her constituency along the B1167, The Causeway, in Thorney, Cambridgeshire, at 10.03pm, the court heard. 

Cell tower data placed her two phones in the area of the speed camera at the time, the prosecutor said. 

The MP, who was elected just a month earlier, was a “prime candidate” for the driver that day, as Parliament had risen for the summer recess several days earlier, suggesting she would be in Peterborough, he continued. 

It came just months after Ms Onasanya committed a separate speeding offence and chose to attend a speed awareness course to avoid receiving points on her licence.

Authorities received a form naming Mr Antipow as the driver on July 24 and giving his address as Hazelwood Close, Cambridge.

Mr Antipow had lived at the property the MP rented on High Street, Chesterton, Cambridge, for one month in 2016, but never at the Hazelwood Close address.

The house was instead occupied by “individuals known to Festus Onasanya where he had lived for a short time”, Mr Jeremy said, while the phone number provided linked to a company, IT Fleet Automotive, for whom Mr Onasanya worked until January 2017.

Bogus details meant Mr Antipow would “remain untraceable to the police and so the true driver of Ms Onasanya’s car on July 24 would escape prosecution”, the court heard.

Investigators, first from the camera ticket unit and then the police, repeatedly struggled to contact the MP when the discrepancies were noticed, it was claimed. 

The prosecutor insisted this was not just due to her hectic schedule, telling the court: “Once she had made the really bad choice of adopting her brother’s method of making prosecutions for speed camera traps disappear, she was trapped in a number of lies and, at every stage, she had to keep lying or confess what she had done."

Mr Onasanya last week pleaded guilty to perverting the course of justice in relation to the offence involving his sister’s car and two further speeding incidents with his own car.

Mr Jeremy said the siblings had “acted jointly”.

The trial continues.