Lord Hanningfield, a Conservative Peer, will appear in court charged with falsely claiming accommodation expenses.
Hanningfield, along with Labour MPs Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine, had originally tried to avoid trial, claiming parliamentary privilege. Chaytor was jailed in January, while Devine is awaiting sentencing. Morley is also due to stand trial.
From the BBC:
Lord Hanningfield faces six charges of false accounting between March 2006 and May 2009.
They are said to relate to overnight allowances for staying in London when records allegedly showed he was driven to his home near Chelmsford, Essex.
Lord Hanningfield, who will appear at the Old Bailey, is the former leader of Essex County Council.
The charges are expected to be put to to the 70-year-old so he can enter his pleas before Mr Justice Saunders, with a trial due to take place in May.
One Comment
I see that Tessa Munt has finally done the right thing and repaid £2.5K Council Tax that her local council was going to take her to court over. She allegedly claimed the single person reduction on her constituency home while several men were registered as staying at the address.
Still in these straightened times I’m sure the council will be happy and it will save the taxpayer the cost of the court action. So all’s well that ends well and after all Tessa was such an ardent campaigner against the MP she unseated for his large expenses claims which included, if my memory serves me, a load of manure. Well I suppose it’s all BS at the end of the day 🙂
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1365951/RICHARD-KAY.html