Ousted MP Fraser Ellis pleads for ‘merciful’ sentence over dishonestly claiming a parliamentary allowance

A former MP who lost his seat to One Nation this year has asked a magistrate to take a “merciful approach” in sentencing him for dishonestly claiming a parliamentary allowance.

Fraser Ellis, 34, appeared in Adelaide Magistrates Court on Friday for sentencing submissions on seven counts of deception, for fraudulently claiming $4676 from the country MPs accommodation allowance.

The former member for Narungga, who lost his seat in the March South Australian election to One Nation’s Chantelle Thomas, was found guilty of four counts of deception in 2024.

He was acquitted on another 19 counts.

But prosecutors challenged that decision and in July the Court of Appeal found Ellis guilty of three more offences.

Prosecutor James Slocombe said a short suspended prison sentence was an appropriate penalty.

He urged Magistrate Simon Smart to consider the need for public deterrence of repeat offending committed “against the House of Assembly”.

Scott Henchliffe KC, for Ellis, said his client “feels strongly that his reputation has been tarnished by the outcome”.

“He feels quite depressed about that - he keeps to himself much more than he used to,” he said.

“He’s had a lot of very difficult nights trying to get to sleep because of all this for the last six years.”

The magistrate asked Mr Henchcliffe if there was an argument that there was a public expectation that MPs would exercise a high degree of probity, particularly when it came to public funds.

“Well, it’s just sort of saying there’s a public expectation that the Crows players will not drive while they’re drunk,” Mr Henchcliffe replied.

“He’s not a Crows player, he (was) a member of parliament … there’s no analogy there,” Mr Smart said.

“Does it not have a corrosive effect upon public confidence in members of parliament … that a member of that institution helps himself to public funds?”

Mr Henchcliffe said that as well as the 20 nights his client had claimed deceptively, there were 19 nights when Ellis could have claimed the allowance and failed to.

“It’s somewhat strange that he dishonestly claimed nights he knew he wasn’t entitled to, but failed to claim nights he was entitled to,” he said.

“It suggests a casualness in his approach, bordering on the reckless ... that goes to the haphazard nature of the criminal offending.”

Since losing his seat, Ellis - who suspended his Liberal Party membership when he was charged in 2021 - had worked in his parents’ newspaper business for 10 to 12 hours a week.

He had applied for five jobs and failed to secure an interview.

Ellis was elected as the Liberal MP for Narungga in 2018 at the age of 25 and that had been his first full-time job.

Mr Henchcliffe asked that there be a “merciful approach” to sentencing, and urged the magistrate impose a good behaviour bond without conviction.

Outside court, Ellis said: “we’ll wait for a decision and see what happens”.

He will be sentenced on September 17.