1. Get elected as a Member of the European Parliament. There are 751 seats up for grabs every 5 years. For this recipe, it makes no difference which political party you are affiliated with.

2. Hire a staff member or service provider in your local constituency. Each MEP is provided €23,392 per month of public money to spend on staffing arrangements.

3. Fiddle invoices and produce dodgy documents while enjoying a nice class of Chateau neuf du taxpayer. With the right amount of skill and subtlety fiddling the staff allowances is possible. But getting caught has its downsides.

Peter Skinner, ex-MEP, was recently sentenced to 4 years in jail for fraudulently using approximately £100,000 of his staff allowance to pay for lavish vacations, jewellery, and even thousands of euros in alimony payments to his ex-wife. He was able to do this by submitting documents and inflated invoices on local assistant and service provider costs. The excess funds