Man slapped with 50 hours unpaid work at Portsmouth Crown Court for election fraud after ‘openly mocking’ system

Mitchell Folland, 25, of Farm Road, Horton Heath in Eastleigh, was found guilty of three counts of personation at local / parliamentary election. Portsmouth Crown Court heard how clerks at a polling station on Hoddinott Road in Eastleigh asked for Folland to provide his name and address – to which he had spelt M.I.T.C.H.E.L.L – and given an address in order to receive ballot papers on Friday May 6 last year.

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The clerks then asked him if his name was CARROLL to which he agreed. He accepted the voting papers for Eastleigh Borough Council, Hampshire County Council and the Police and Crime Commissioner elections, and went into a voting booth to spoil them, before posting them into the ballot box.

The court also heard how Folland recorded the whole event on his mobile phone, whilst the device was in his pocket, and proceeded to upload it onto social media after the event. He was given a community order to complete 50 hours unpaid work.

Officer, Sarah Wincewicz said: ‘We are privileged in this country to live in a democracy, where citizens can exercise their right to vote in a range of elections. Mr Folland could have used the opportunity to exercise his own right to vote. Instead he not only deprived another citizen of being able to vote, but he did so in a way that voiced disdain for the system by openly mocking it, using social media as a platform for his antics.’