Ashley Mote claimed the district council had spent more than £1m to bring the prosecution which saw him found guilty of 21 offences of fraudulently claiming more than £65,000 in benefits from the council and the government.

But the council has hit back, saying the court case had not cost Chichester's council tax payers a single penny because the case was brought by the Department for Work and Pensions.

Mote said: "Chichester's taxpayers have to ask themselves why their council decided to spend over £1m of public money on a five-week trial about an alleged wrongful benefit payment of some £45,000 over a period of seven years.

"They employed a top QC, supported at times by as many as nine advisors. It turned a simple allegation into 25 separate charges with 147 alleged justifications of guilt."

But a spokesman for the district council said it did not spend any money on the case.

It said it was 'disappointing' that the south-east MEP, who now lives in Hampshire, was making the claims.

"To suggest £1m of Chichester taxpayers' money has been spent on this case could not be further from the truth," he said.

"The prosecution was brought against Mr Mote by the Department for Work and Pensions, and included offences connected with benefits claimed from the district council.

"Both the district council and the DWP have a duty to protect the public purse and to make sure taxpayers do not suffer by people dishonestly claiming money they are not entitled to."

As previously reported by the Observer, Mote was found guilty of fraudulently claiming £31,421 in income support, £29,991 in housing benefit and £4,093 council tax relief between 1996 and 2002.

Mote, who at the time lived in Langley, had failed to declare his wife had a £12,000-a-year job and that he had interests in two companies. He received a nine-month jail sentence from Portsmouth Crown Court.

In a statement, he said: "I confirm that never ever would I seek to defraud the public purse.

"Nor did I intend to do so.

"Going to the benefits office at all was an agonising acknowledgement of at least temporary defeat.

"My only purpose – ever – was to get myself off benefit, not to sponge off the state."

A spokeswoman for the DWP said it could not comment on individual cases but said all cases of fraud are always dealt with in the same way following strict procedural guidelines.