Parliament expenses file handed to prosecutors

Detectives investigating the Parliamentary expenses scandal handed an additional file of evidence to prosecutors today.

Scotland Yard said the new dossier will be considered by lawyers at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) with a view to bringing further possible charges.

It takes the number of files handed over by police into double figures, relating to 10 people.

To date, six files have resulted in charges. The CPS has decided that no further action will be taken in two cases.

Melanie Leather/Digital/Independent News and Media

22/12/2010 14:00

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PARLIAMENT EXPENSES FILE HANDED TO PROSECUTORS

By Matt Williams, Press Association

Detectives investigating the Parliamentary expenses scandal handed an additional file of evidence to prosecutors today.

Scotland Yard said the new dossier will be considered by lawyers at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) with a view to bringing further possible charges.

It takes the number of files handed over by police into double figures, relating to 10 people.

To date, six files have resulted in charges. The CPS has decided that no further action will be taken in two cases.

Director of Public Prosecutions Keir Starmer and Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson set up a team to consider political expenses cases in May last year.

To date, four MPs and two peers have been charged as part of the investigation.

Former Labour MPs David Chaytor, Elliot Morley and Jim Devine were charged with theft by false accounting earlier this year.

Chaytor faces jail after he pleaded guilty to stealing more than £20,000 at the Old Bailey earlier this month.

The remaining two former Labour MPs face trials in the new year after they exhausted appeals against the case.

Former Tory Essex County Council leader Lord Hanningfield, also known as Paul White, faces six charges of making dishonest claims for allowances.

His trial will take place at Southwark Crown Court, in London, at a date yet to be fixed.

The fifth politician to face charges is Barnsley Central Labour MP Eric Illsley, who is accused of dishonestly claiming more than £20,000 for his London home.

The sixth is former Tory peer Lord Taylor - full name John David Beckett Taylor - who is to face six charges of false accounting.

In March, Labour peer Lady Uddin was told she will not face prosecution over expenses for a flat in Kent which was apparently unoccupied for long periods.

The second person to be told he will face no further action was Lord Clarke of Hampstead.

In May 2009, the Labour peer and former party chairman apparently admitted he claimed some expenses to make up for not being paid a salary.

According to the Met, a "small number of cases" still remain under examination by the joint panel of police and prosecutors.