Craig Mackinlay and his wife Kati, pictured in Ramsgate, Kent, during the 2015 election
Conservative MP Craig Mackinlay was today acquitted of falsifying his election expenses for his 2015 campaign against then-Ukip leader Nigel Farage.
But senior Tory party official Marion Little, who was said to have effectively run the campaign to fend off the challenge from Mr Farage, was found guilty of two counts of intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence under the Serious Crime Act 2007.
Little's conviction at Southwark Crown Court came after the jury was told 'the law was simply abandoned' as the Tories set out to ensure victory over Mr Farage.
South Thanet MP Mr Mackinlay, 52, had been accused of failing to declare more than £60,000 spent on staffing, hotels and advertising. Today, he marked his not guilty verdict with a tweet carrying the simple message: '#Notguilty.'
Prosecutors said he ignored strict spending limits to beat Mr Farage, and that the victory could have been declared void had the true position been known.
Mr Mackinlay marked the verdict today with a tweet carrying the simple message: '#Notguilty'
But a jury acquitted him of two charges of knowingly making a false election expenses declaration under the Representation of the People Act 1983 after deliberating for 53 hours and 29 minutes, having retired on December 5.
Mr Mackinlay's election agent Nathan Gray, 29, from Hawkhurst, Kent, was earlier acquitted of making a false election expenses declaration.
The court heard the South Thanet constituency was considered a key seat in the 2015 general election as the Tories fought against the increasingly popular Ukip.
Mr Mackinlay won in 2015 with a majority of around 2,800 from an electorate of 70,000 and was re-elected to Parliament in 2017 just a week after he was charged.
Tory party worker Marion Little was found guilty of two counts of intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence
The prosecution case centred around claims that hotel costs and other expenditure for activists and party workers were recorded as national election spending rather than local, to ensure that strict spending limits for individual candidates were not breached.
During the campaign, South Thanet was visited by a number of high-profile Tory figures, including Theresa May, George Osborne, Boris Johnson and former footballer Sol Campbell.
Declared spending came in under the £52,000 limit set for the constituency, but prosecutors claimed more than £60,000 was not declared.
Mr Mackinlay, from Ramsgate, told jurors his aides had been cautious over the election budget, fearing a challenge by Mr Farage.
'Of any seat in the country, this would be the one looked at and pored over very carefully,' he said.
He insisted he had little control over spending and described a 'battle bus' of volunteers drafted in by Conservative Party HQ as a 'total waste of time'.
'I was just a small cog in a big gearbox,' he added.
Little, 63, of Ware in Hertfordshire, was found guilty of two counts of intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence under the Serious Crime Act 2007 but cleared of a third count.
Mr Mackinlay and his wife Kati at Southwark Crown Court in London on January 2 this year
Seasoned campaigner Little, who has worked for the party since 1974, was sent from central office to help run the campaign and was convicted by majority verdict of two counts of encouraging or assisting an offence.
Election spending is tightly controlled over two stages, known as a short and a long campaign.
Little was convicted on two counts relating to the short campaign and cleared of one count relating to the long campaign.
Although overall declarations came in below the £52,000 limit, the prosecution said thousands spent on staffing, hotels and advertising had gone undeclared.
The Crown Prosecution Service said the total undeclared figure was thought to be £61,861.15, but that there was no clear audit trail.
Zoe Martin, from the CPS special crime division, said: 'There didn't appear to be a very clear audit trail, if there was an audit trail at all, in terms of the reasons why certain expenses hadn't been declared.
'Precise figures have not been possible but certainly the weight of the evidence is that there was vast expenditure.'
Mr Farage said: 'This verdict shows that there are no election rules for the big parties in British politics, they can wilfully overspend without any consequences.'
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News Pictures Tory MP Craig Mackinlay is cleared of fiddling expenses in election
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