A greedy MEP who milked over £100,000 from his expenses can have no complaints about his tough sentence, senior judges have ruled.

Peter Skinner, 56 and of Recreation Avenue, Snodland, was hit with a four-year jail term at Southwark Crown Court after he was convicted of a string of offences in March last year.

Skinner - Labour MEP for South East England between 1999 and 2014 - was found guilty of false accounting, fraud and making a false instrument.

The politician claimed around £480,000 in expenses - of which about £100,000 was fraudulent.

And the judge who sentenced him said he was guilty of a "sustained pattern of stealing".

Lady Justice Rafferty told London's Appeal Court today that Skinner had "damaged public trust" through his crimes.

He was guilty of a "breach of trust of the worst kind", added the judge, who was sitting with Mrs Justice Laing and Mr Justice Fraser,

"Significant sums were used for his personal purposes" and Skinner viewed expenses as "something he could drain for his own advantage".

He had "demonstrated no remorse" and the punishment handed to him was "unassailable".

Dismissing the appeal, the judge concluded: "This sentence is not arguably wrong in principle or excessive".