Lord Hanningfield jailed for fiddling expenses


The peer was a front bench spokesman for the Conservatives in the House of Lords



Former Tory peer and Essex Council leader Lord Hanningfield has been jailed for nine months for fiddling his parliamentary expenses.
Paul White, 70, was convicted of six counts of false accounting relating to nearly £14,000 of claims in May.
White has said he will seek leave to appeal against the verdict. If granted, the Court of Appeal will hear the case.
He was found guilty of claiming money for overnight stays in London when he had actually returned home to Essex.
Peers were able to claim up to £174-a-night when attending Parliament, if their main home was outside the city.


Mental state

But during his trial in May, the court was told White submitted false claims for hotel bills including one when he was actually on board a flight to India at the time.
He also fraudulently claimed for train fares and car mileage.
White is the sixth parliamentarian to be jailed for expenses fraud. Tory peer Lord Taylor and four former Labour MPs - Eric Illsley, David Chaytor, Jim Devine and Elliot Morley - were all given prison sentences.


Chaytor and Illsley have since been released under the home detention curfew scheme.
Passing sentence at Maidstone Crown Court, Mr Justice Saunders said that while there were "ambiguities" in the expenses system in the Lords, it was clear that White had claimed for expenses "he did not incur".
"He knew when he accepted a peerage that the job of a working peer was unpaid and he did not have to accept the honour," he said.
"It is not for me to say whether peers should or should not be paid but whatever you think of the scheme, it was not for any peer to take money to which he was not entitled on the basis that he believes he is worth it."
Mr Justice Saunders said White's dishonesty and that of others had had "serious consequences" for the reputation of Parliament.
"Great trust was placed in peers to be honest in their claims for expenses. The public expects no less of them. Lord Hanningfield and others have broken that trust."
The BBC's Helen Fawkes said the judge had taken White's reportedly fragile mental state and his age into account before sentencing him. She said the judge was told that the former peer had been diagnosed with clinical depression and had expressed suicidal ideas at the prospect of being sent to prison.
"The bringing of these charges brought about the end of his work which was very important to him," Mr Justice Saunders added. "Imprisonment will be harder for him than for others who are mentally and physically fitter."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-13989329